Mouth of the Amazon River

RexStJames · 07-18-2005, 08:55 PM

This is pretty obvious. At the mouth of the Amazon River in South America is this odd yellow-green area. Is this really what color it is on earth, or is this some weird result of the satellite imagry? I'm guessing the latter because it's really funny looking, and it's a very tight triangular shape.
Any other guesses?

Rwootton · 07-25-2005, 10:06 PM

I was wondering that too. It looks like that part of the river is only covered with very coarse satellite imagery vs. the area just to the west.

So I think we are only seeing part of a large image obscured by imagery from another time and resolution.

two ideas I had was that it we are seeing the sediment load in water discharging from the river before it settles out into the ocean. It might also be an algae bloom from all the organic material, nitrates, etc from the river water. Both would make the water more reflective than the surrounding, deeper and clearer ocean.

Arashi · 07-28-2005, 01:31 PM

I don't think its sediment. At the mouth of the Huang-He or the Jangtse River, the phenomenon is visible, but much less. And they both carry much morge Sediment than the Amazon.

I, too, would rather guess its algae blooming.

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07-25-2005, 10:06 PM	#2
Rwootton Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Chicago Posts: 30	I was wondering that too. It looks like that part of the river is only covered with very coarse satellite imagery vs. the area just to the west. So I think we are only seeing part of a large image obscured by imagery from another time and resolution. two ideas I had was that it we are seeing the sediment load in water discharging from the river before it settles out into the ocean. It might also be an algae bloom from all the organic material, nitrates, etc from the river water. Both would make the water more reflective than the surrounding, deeper and clearer ocean.

07-28-2005, 01:31 PM	#3
Arashi Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Mainz, Germany Posts: 27	I don't think its sediment. At the mouth of the Huang-He or the Jangtse River, the phenomenon is visible, but much less. And they both carry much morge Sediment than the Amazon. I, too, would rather guess its algae blooming.