Lake Haiyaha's turquoise waters
In mid-August, I hiked to Lake Haiyaha in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. The unusual turquoise coloration of the lake is a direct result of the 2022 Chaos Canyon landslide. The debris slide transported fine "rock flour" into the lake. These particles absorb the shortest wavelengths of light, the purples and indigos. Meanwhile, the water absorbs the longer wavelength reds, oranges, and yellows. That leaves mainly blues and greens to get scattered back to our eyes. This is what makes Lake Haiyaha appear a milky sea-green color.
Authors
- Aman Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-9525)
Institutions
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Colorado System (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- University of Colorado Honors Journal
- Published
- 2025-04-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.33011/cuhj20253649
- Primary Topic
- Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00