The lake in America changes color beautifully, but it is extremely bad news

Although the lake has extremely attractive colors, experts can only shake their heads when this happens. Why so?

People around Lake Erie (a very large lake of the Great Lakes of North America) had a startling day, when the lake water suddenly turned into fanciful, beautiful green.

The picture below is provided by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) system of Landsat 8 satellite. It shows how strange the lake can turn colors.

Lake Erie water suddenly turned into fanciful, beautiful green.

But although beautiful, this is very bad news, when the lake water is now like a giant poison tank. The reason comes from the agent causing the discoloration is the explosive development of "toxic algae".

Reportedly, the first toxic algae outbreak in this year began in July at Maumee Bay, but then spread east and north, along the coasts of Michigan, Ohio and Ontario.

The agent causing such discoloration is the explosive development of "toxic algae".

Experts say the cause behind the incident may be because the lake has absorbed too much phosphorus from agricultural and industrial activities. This phosphorus has stimulated the ability of algae to absorb nutrients to the point of "crazy" , causing them to boom. This process is called "eutrophication" (eutrophication).

More dangerous, the majority of explosive algae have Microcystis - a cyanobacteria . It may look good, but they produce toxins, causing the lake water to be heavily polluted and at the same time endangering people and animals around. If exposed to lake water at this time can cause skin allergies, even severe respiratory failure.

Magical lake surface, but full of danger.

That is not to mention the harm to the environment. Exploding algae will suck up oxygen in the lake, causing fish to die in mass, causing a terrible stench that affects the lives of surrounding residents.

It is known that the last time Lake Erie happened this phenomenon since the 1960s. At that time, this giant lake was almost "exhausted " because the lake water was seriously polluted. Although it has tried to overcome it, so far the level of pollution in the lake is still quite large, especially the very high phosphorus concentration, making the tragedy today happen.