Mysterious Blue Water in an Abandoned Strip Mine

[Mars_eclipse]

"Blue" Water

I live in an area that used to be used for mining of anthracite coal, actually a lot of it still is. Recently I "stumbled" upon an old strip mine in the woods. No surprise though around here they're everywhere. There were two surprising things about this particular strip mine.
1. The mine was filled with water, it has been that way for many years.
2. The water in this mine is an almost florescent blue color.
I've been trying to figure out what could possibly give it this strange color. At first I thought maybe copper but copper generally turns green in reaction to water. After seeing some of the sediment from the bottom of the mine, I thought maybe it was iron since it had almost like a rust color to it. However I still have a feeling that is not correct. Are there any minerals that are commonly found close to anthracite coal that would give water a color such as this?
Also do it post any kind of environmental threat?

 

[mgb_phys]

The turquise color is caused by light scattering from very fine silt particles in the water. It happens a lot with mine tailings, it's often a sign that the water is quite clean - most pollutants cause the particles to clump together and sink.

You get the same think with glacier fed lakes in the mountains.

 

[Xnn]

Pure water has a turquoise blue color because it weakly absorbs the red portion of visible light. This is due to the vibrational mode of the atom.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_water

Scattering from suspended particles also plays an important role in the color of lakes and oceans. A few tens of meters of water will absorb all light, so without scattering, all bodies of water would appear black. Because most lakes and oceans contain suspended living matter and mineral particles, known as colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) light from above is reflected upwards. Scattering from suspended particles would normally give a white color, as with snow, but because the light first passes through many meters of blue-colored liquid, the scattered light appears blue. In extremely pure water as is found in mountain lakes, where scattering from white colored particles is missing, the scattering from water molecules themselves also contributes a blue color.

 

[austux]

Pure water has a turquoise blue color because it weakly absorbs the red portion of visible light. This is due to the vibrational mode of the atom.

Delighted I am to live in Western Australia, which has some of the bluest seawater in the world. (-:

 

[harborsparrow]

no matter how pure it may look, it could still be very poisonous; if you really want to know, send samples to a test lab