Why does the water of high mountain lakes vary in color from lake to lake?

Question

For example, look in Google maps or yahoo maps at the Uinta Mountains in Utah and you will notice that many of the lakes exhibit bright colors (turquoise, aqua-marine, light blue, even some bright browns).  As far as I know, there are not any glaciers in these mountains, to create "glacial flour" like in many of the lakes in Glacier National Park, or the Wind River range. For an example, zoom in closer on these lakes to see the different colors - http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Utah&ll=40.791719,-110.437145&spn=0.076158,0.142651&t=h&z=13

Glenn · Accepted Answer

It would mostly depend on depth, mineral content, algae content, oxygen content, and density of particulates in the water.

AndrewG · Answer

All the factors mentioned by Glen are involved; but one of the main reasons why lakes on google earth vary so much is the angle between the sunlight reflecting off the water surface and imaging device (aerial photo or satellite imaging).  Also, the way satellite imaging works is different from aerial photography, because satellite imaging uses multi-wavelength image processing.

3 · Answer

Glen has best answer, almost exactly what I was going to say.

Why does the water of high mountain lakes vary in color from lake to lake?

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