2023-07-19 05:45:00
It’s a question that we haven’t necessarily asked ourselves so far, but do you know the reason why the North Sea is darker than the Mediterranean? Our colleagues from Het Nieuwsblad interviewed marine biologist Filip Volckaert (KU Leuven) on the subject. The latter revealed that behind this phenomenon hides the sun!
In fact, when the sun’s rays pass through water, short-wavelength colors, such as blue and violet, are absorbed less quickly than red and green. But what you need to know is that the light is more strongly scattered when particles are present in the water. All these phenomena give a blue appearance to the water.
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Since impurities like algae and plankton are more present in the North Sea, the light is reflected less and the blue is therefore less pronounced to the eye. All of these will mostly scatter longer wavelengths of light, such as red and green, which gives the water a brownish tint. Add to that the tides which are more important in the north of Europe, which stirs up the sand more and you will understand why we are far from the magnificent color of the Mediterranean.
“The North Sea is therefore murkier than the Mediterranean Sea, in which there is practically no algae and where the mud hardly circulates,” he concludes.
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