MODIS - Aqua

The waters in this image are draped in the jewel-like colors of the Bahamas: turquoise, bright blue, and emerald green, and in the deeper blue-black of the Gulf of Mexico (left) and the Atlantic Ocean (right). The brighter colors surrounding the Bahamas are caused by the relatively shallow waters over the Little and Great Bahama Banks, which are shelves of land that were submerged as the continental glaciers of the last ice age melted. The jewel-like waters around Cuba and Florida's tip could be a consequence of shallow waters, but could also be colored by a larger presence of microscopic marine organisms, such as algae and phytoplankton, which lend a darker-green tinge to the water.

Brightly-colored waters in the Gulf of Mexico indicate the presence of sediment, detritus, and blooms of marine plants called phytoplankton.