Ocean Color off Iceland's Coast

During the darkness of winter, when the growth of plant-like marine life slows, nutrients accumulate in the surface waters of cold high latitude oceans. When light returns in the spring and summer, plant-like organisms—phytoplankton—proliferate in the surface waters. Spring and early summer phytoplankton blooms can cover a broad swath of the ocean, providing an abundance of food to marine life. One of the larger regularly observed summer blooms occurs in the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland and Greenland. This image of a bloom on July 10, 2008 shows phytoplankton coloring the water with swirls in shades ranging from deep green to bright turquoise. The bloom hugs the western shore of Iceland. The land is largely snow-free except for mountain tops like the snow-covered peak of Snæfellsjökull, the volcano where Jules Verne’s travelers began their descent into the bowels of the Earth in his classic novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.

See http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8920