Earth as Art: Nature Paints a Pretty Picture

Nature doesn't need a paint brush and canvas to create a masterpiece, just some deep-ocean sediment, converging currents, and some hungry plants.

This image from NASA's Aqua satellite shows a summertime bloom of tiny ocean plants, called phytoplankton, plant life coloring the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean with swirls of cobalt and turquoise.

Along the coast, sediment from rivers and streams that drain southern Argentina's fertile, lowland plains (known as the pampas) stained the coastal waters greenish-brown.

Ocean plants play a major role in the global carbon cycle. During photosynthesis, these tiny organisms remove about the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as land plants do.

Phytoplankton blooms are common in places where two or more ocean currents meet, called convergence zones. Mixing the currents creates turbulence in the water, pushing some water downward and pulling other water up toward the surface from deep in the ocean. These deep waters are often rich in nutrients that act like fertilizer for marine plant life.

Satellite observations of the global ocean are the only way to get a planet-wide look at the timing, extent, and intensity of these blooms.

--Bjorn Carey

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Earth As Art

Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC