The turquoise river fooled scientists

The Rio Celeste River in Costa Rica has caused scientists to mistake the beautiful turquoise color of water for many years due to the chemical reaction created.

The Rio Celeste River looks from above.(Video: YouTube.)

Costa Rica scientists only found the real cause of the Rio Celeste River, a 14-kilometer river in the province of Alajuela, which is unusually turquoise blue four years ago by comparison and analysis of water samples, according to Oddity. Central.

Previously, the turquoise hypotheses of the Rio Celeste were produced by the research community in turn for years, but no one could give convincing evidence to explain this natural phenomenon.

Some scholars argue that the color of the river is unusual due to the high concentration of copper, but the test results indicate that there is no domestic copper. Another hypothesis concludes that river water is the result of chemicals such as calcium carbonate and sulfur. Everyone is so convinced by the hypothesis of chemical reactions that no one has ever thought of the possibility that river water is turquoise due to visual illusion.

Turquoise blue of the Rio Celeste river.(Photo: Facebook.)

A group of scientists at Costa Rica University and National University, sampling water from both the Rio Celeste River and two Sour Creek tributaries (Quebrada Agria) and Good View River (Río Buena Vista). The first thing that caught the attention of scientists was that while the Rio Celeste River was eye-catching turquoise, the water samples collected in the test tube were completely transparent.

Sour Creek and Río Buena Vista, the two rivers combined to form the Rio Celeste river, also have clear water and analyzes show no unusual chemical reactions. Another special feature is that Rio Celeste is only turquoise in the river section of 14 km, then river water becomes transparent again. For this reason, the colorful river section of the eye is also named "Khuc river dyed" (El Teñidero).

Researchers began to consider the possibility of visual illusion. They noticed that the white compound covered the entire rock at the bottom of the Río Celeste river, and also checked in both tributaries. Sour Creek has a very small, almost negligible amount of white compound, while the Río Buena Vista river water is abundant.

Compound analysis with electron microscopy in the UCR laboratory, the team determined that this is a mineral containing aluminum, silicon and oxygen, called aluminosilicate. When suspended in water, compounds reflect sunlight, fooling the viewer to see the turquoise water.

Sunlight contains the entire spectrum of light, similar to the way we see all the colors we see in the rainbow. In any other river, light passes through a certain depth and no specific color is deflected or reflected back to the surface, making the water look transparent. In contrast, the Rio Celeste river allows some sunlight to pass through and reflect the blue light band. Therefore, the river water seems to be turquoise blue in front of people.

However, another puzzling point is that the Rio Buena Vista river also has abundant aluminosilicate but the river water is still transparent. Scientists believe the problem lies in the size of aluminosilicate particles. After analyzing the water samples in both rivers, the team found that the aluminosilicate particle size on the Rio Buena Vista river was 184 nanometers, while the Rio Celeste river reached 566 nm.

" Large size causes sunlight scattering, most of the process takes place in the blue region of the visible spectrum. That's why the Rio Celeste River is turquoise. This is one of the things. strange of nature, a river that provides minerals of one size and another that provides an acid-rich environment that makes those seeds grow , "said Dr. Max Chavarría Vargas.