Beach covered with white foam like snow mats

Thick foams on the water turned white Naqoura, Lebanon, into white, creating an impressive scene.

Naqoura Beach in Lebanon looks like an immense snow carpet when large amounts of sponges form and cover the water, Smithsonian reported on January 31.

Sponge forms from a combination of air, water and surfactants. Under normal conditions, large surface tension of water prevents bubbles from long-lasting. Bubbles in the water generated by waves often burst right when they hit the water.

However, the surfactant is located between the water and the air, which reduces this tension, causing the bubble to rise without breaking immediately. Instead, they spill over the water and form thick foam.

Some contaminants such as fertilizer or soap can act as surfactants. However, in nature there are also many surfactants formed from compounds such as fat from seaweed, seaweed and decomposing fish carcasses. Surfactants have a common characteristic that the molecule has a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic head.

White waters on Naqoura beach due to thick foams.(Photo: Smithsonian).

The condition for creating lots of sponges is that there is a large amount of surfactant or water stirred up. Sponges are usually harmless but sometimes cause some problems. In the phenomenon of red tide, the toxic algae karenia brevis thrives, causing bubbles to create aerosol particles that cause eye and respiratory irritation.