Rainbow Pool

Rainbow Pool
This spot, especially when caught at the right time of year, is one of the most colorful in Yellowstone National Park, flashing all the colors of the rainbow.

The intense blue at the center of many hydrothermal features indicates extremely hot water. The water rising up in the center of Hot Springs is often so hot that it is barren of microscopic life, sometimes exceeding the boiling point of water at this elevation. The blue color comes from an effect similar to that of the blue sky – sunlight enters the pool and blue light is scattered the most, coming back to the eye and making pure waters appear blue.

The remaining rainbow is actually caused by life. As the waters cool and move away from the center of the pool, different organisms are able to begin processing the nutrients carried by the waters from deeper in the Yellowstone hydrothermal system. The green colors occur when cyanobacteria, which are able to process sunlight and survive these temperatures, take over. Further out, different bacteria that produce carotenoids (the same compound that gives carrots their orange color) take over and complete the rainbow with yellow, orange, and maybe a bit of red.

In other pools, bacteria that process sulfur can produce the same colors, but those bacteria can change the order of the colors from the well-ordered rainbow we see here.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/hotsprings.htm
http://bioinfo.bact.wisc.edu/themicrobialworld/LAHT/b4.html
http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/thermobacteria.htm

h/t earthstory
Image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelmattiphotography/8739292040/

#naturalphenomena   #yellowstone   #hotsprings