Is Lake Erie glow a ghostly green in provision for Halloween ? Or perhaps an uttermost premature St Patrick ’s Day put-on ? Not quite .
These stunning image show the gargantuan North American lake erupt with a vibrant green hue due to aharmful algal flush .
The satellite look-alike , read in natural color , were taken on September 26 , 2017 , by the Operational Land Imager ( OLI ) onboard the Landsat 8 satellite . There ’s also some rather beautiful aeriform picture taking of the phenomenon taken by pilots flying above Ohio . This year ’s bloom was first reported in July in Maumee Bay , but has since spread eastwards and northwards within the lake ’s western basin , along the shore of Michigan , Ohio , and Ontario .
The prime suspectbehind the algal bloom is phosphorus draining into the lake from agricultural or industrial sources . This phosphorous makes the algae go into a “ feeding " fury when it enters the water system . This process is known aseutrophication .
The bloom containsMicrocystis , a type of freshwater cyanobacteria , according to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA ) . It might see pretty from the sky , but thesephytoplanktonproduce toxin that can foul drink body of water and pose a risk to human and creature health , including botheration to the cutis and respiratory distress . Along with this , the procedure of eutrophication can leave lakes starved of oxygen ( not to mention it can really quetch up a fetor ) .
The problem has been documented at Lake Erie before , with theme seem as far back as the sixties . This Great Lake was said to be " choke " during the 1960s due to weewee quality problem , according to theEPA . Although there ’s been extensive efforts to clean it up , it ’s still pretty polluted and , plainly , load with Lucifer .
