Mermaid McKenna

Oceanography is my passion. It is the study of marine biology, chemistry, geology and physics. Today's is about a topic of marine geology: hydrothermal vents. Found deep on the ocean floor, these vents are comparable to geysers that spew hot, hot water from the earth's crust. Hydrothermal vents are the result of seawater seeping down through fissures in the ocean crust. The cold seawater is heated by hot magma and comes back to the surface to form the vents. This water can reach 750°F and it often carries minerals, giving the plumes a black appearance. This hot water fails to boil under such extreme pressures. That's because the v***r pressure cannot exceed the atmospheric pressure, in chemistry terms. :) Many organisms are found living on and around hydrothermal vents, as their metabolic processes rely on the minerals that come out of the vents. Such organisms can be seen pictured above. It's bewildering to think that life can exist in such a harsh environment... 🗻💨

For today's let's talk about why the ocean is blue! 🌊 The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of light. It ranges from radio waves to gamma rays, and includes visible light. The sun shines down on the ocean with "white light." That is, every color in the visible spectrum gets sent down to the ocean! Water, because of its chemistry, ABSORBS reddish light. That leaves bluish colors to become reflected. This reflection of blue light is what we see as a blue ocean. So, why is the ocean sometimes green? Microscopic algae has a different way of reflecting light. It can reflect green and absorb the other colors for use in photosynthesis! Finally, you may be wondering, then what is light? Einstein pondered the same question after the seeing the work of other famous chemists and physicists. Finally, it was concluded that light is a wave (called electromagnetic radiation) and a particle (called a photon). How can it be both? Become a quantum scientist to find out :) ⚛️