THE MOST COLOURFUL SIGHTS ON EARTH
Jun 25, 2020
4 minutes
WORDS: DR HELEN PILCHER
by
DR HELEN PILCHER
(@HelenPilcher1)
SPRING TO LIFE
GRAND PRISMATIC SPRING, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING, US
Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the US, and it boasts a veritable rainbow of colours. Hot water bubbles up through a crack in the Earth’s crust, supplying the spring. Very little can survive in the centre of the spring, where temperatures can reach nearly 90°C, so the water here is a pure blue. But away from the centre, colourful, heat-loving bacteria begin to thrive, and the spring’s concentric rings of temperature create different niches. The colours come from the photosynthetic pigments, such
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