The devastating cyclone churned up so much sediment that a huge swath of the gulf has temporarily changed color.
The huge swath of brilliant turquoise seen off the coast of Florida in this Sept. 30th Terra satellite image is the result of Hurricane Ian's passage. The cyclone, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28th, churned up enormous quantities of sediment, causing a dramatic, but temporary, change in the color of the gulf's waters. For a before-and-after animation of satellite images, see below.
As you can see in the image at the top of this story, and in the animation of satellite images directly above, Hurricane Ian's enormous power and sprawling size helped it churn up large amounts of sediment in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. So much so that it transformed the color of the Gulf's surface waters, producing a brilliant turquoise color.
The satellite imagery also reveals darker material flowing out into the Gulf from land — turbid dischargesThis phenomenon is by no means unique. Other hurricanes have churned up sea sediments and caused turbid outflows before. For one example, see the imagery in
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