http://www.golf-vacation-usa.com/earth-sciences-geology/why-is-the-atlantic-water-blue-in-southern-florida-and-brown-along-the-northern-us-coast Do You Love to Play Golf? Sat, 19 May 2012 19:29:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://www.golf-vacation-usa.com/earth-sciences-geology/why-is-the-atlantic-water-blue-in-southern-florida-and-brown-along-the-northern-us-coast#comment-5011 Nigel P Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:38:50 +0000 http://www.golf-vacation-usa.com/earth-sciences-geology/why-is-the-atlantic-water-blue-in-southern-florida-and-brown-along-the-northern-us-coast#comment-5011 While I cannot answer the question based on the areas you mention I can give an answer based on knowledge of coastal geomorphology. Brown water is water with a lot of suspended sediment in it, while blue water is water with relatively little suspended matter. Nothing to do with pollution, a completely natural process. To contain suspended sediment there must be a source of fine sediments, silts and muds as only these are fine enough to remain suspended in sea water for long. This may be due to the nature of the local coastline, glacial till for example is a good source of fine sediment, or it may be due to sediment input from river systems. If the source of the sediment is the eroding coastline, you will often see that the sea is brown for a couple of hundred meters, in the area of sediment transport, but blue further out, once you get beyong the sediment transport zone and the water has little suspended sediment. While I cannot answer the question based on the areas you mention I can give an answer based on knowledge of coastal geomorphology.
Brown water is water with a lot of suspended sediment in it, while blue water is water with relatively little suspended matter. Nothing to do with pollution, a completely natural process. To contain suspended sediment there must be a source of fine sediments, silts and muds as only these are fine enough to remain suspended in sea water for long. This may be due to the nature of the local coastline, glacial till for example is a good source of fine sediment, or it may be due to sediment input from river systems. If the source of the sediment is the eroding coastline, you will often see that the sea is brown for a couple of hundred meters, in the area of sediment transport, but blue further out, once you get beyong the sediment transport zone and the water has little suspended sediment.

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