Why surface top soils differ in color on various parts of the earth?
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The mineral composition of the soil affects whether the it will be red or light colored. We have a lot of clay in NC - orange & red indicates that iron is present. The parent material from which the soil came from has a lot to do with determining the mineral content.\n\nBeach sands can be all different colors because of their parent material. Black sand beaches of Hawaii came from basaltic lava parent material.\n\nOrganic matter can also cause soils to be different colors. Usually the darker the soil the more organic matter.
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It is the same reason that sunsets are red and orange. The sun is shining all of the colors of the rainbow on to the moon, and the moon is reflecting all of those colors pretty evenly. Actually during Harvest moon this happens and also one can see this on any full or nearly full moon as the moon is rising.\nWhen the moon is low, the reflected sunlight has to travel through more air than when the moon is high in the sky. Colors at the blue or violet end of the rainbow(spectrum) are easily scattered or bent(refracted) by the atmosphere. (That's why the sky is blue: you're seeing blue sunlight scattered in every direction.) So it's the colors at the red and orange end of the spectrum that pass through the atmosphere and into your eyes.\nFor more info on the moon visit http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/planetarium/mooncal/moonfaq.htm
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The moon does not change colour, only our perception of the reflection of light from the sun off the moon and then through the earths atmosphere produce the colours we see. particles in the air inhibit light travel, the faster colours, ie blue, are deflected in heavy atmosphere, letting the red show through. (so a dusty night might show a red moon) for the same reason (but the other way around) the sky is blue, and so are the oceans.
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because of tyndall effect as the blue clour as a longer wave length in the spectrum of colours it gets scaterd more in the sky \n\n\nmxwltan\n6 minutes ago\n\n\n\nThe Earth's sky is blue because the air molecules (largely nitrogen\nand oxygen) are much smaller than the wavelength of light. When light\nencounters particles much smaller than its wavelength, the scattered\nintensity is inversely proportional to the 4'th power of the\nwavelength. This is called "Rayleigh scattering," and it means that\nhalf the wavelength is scattered with 2**4 = 16 times more intensity.\nThat's why the sky appears blue: the blue light is scattered some 16\ntimes more strongly than the red light. Rayleigh scattering is also\nthe reason why the setting Sun appears red: the blue light has been\nscattered away from the direct sunlight.\n\nThus, if the atmosphere of another planet is composed of a transparent\ngas or gases whose molecules are much smaller than the wavelength of\nlight, we would, in general, also expect the sky on that planet to\nhave a blue color.\n\nIf you want another color of the sky, you need bigger particles in the\nair. You need something bigger than molecules in the air---dust.\n\nDust particles can be many times larger than air molecules but still\nsmall enough to not fall out to the ground. If the dust particles are\nmuch larger than the wavelength of light, the scattered light will be\nneutral in color (i.e., white or gray)---this also happens in clouds\nhere on Earth, which consist of water droplets. If the dust particles\nare of approximately the same size as the wavelength of light, the\nsituation gets complex, and all sorts of interesting scattering\nphenomena may happen. This happens here on Earth from time to time,\nparticularly in desert areas, where the sky may appear white, brown,\nor some other color. Dust is also responsible for the pinkish sky on\nMars, as seen in the photographs returned from the Viking landers.\n\nIf the atmosphere contains lots of dust, the direct light from the Sun\nor Moon may occasionally get some quite unusual color. Sometimes,\ngreen and blue moons have been reported. These phenomena are quite\nrare though---they happen only "once in a blue moon...." :) The dust\nresponsible for these unusual color phenomena is most often volcanic\nin origin. When El Chicon erupted in 1982, this caused unusually\nstrongly colored sunsets in equatorial areas for more than one year.\nThe much bigger volcanic explosion at Krakatoa, some 110 years ago,\ncaused green and blue moons worldwide for a few years.\n\nOne possible exception to the above discussion is if the clouds on the\nplanet are composed of a strongly colored chemical. This might occur\non Jupiter, where the clouds are thought to contain sulfur, phosphorus,\nand/or various organic chemicals.\n\nIt's also worth pointing out that the light of the planet's primary is\nquite insignificant. Our eyes are highly adaptable to the dominating\nillumination and perceive it as "white," within a quite wide range of\npossible colors. During daytime, we perceive the light from the Sun\n(6000 K) as white, and at night we perceive the light from our\nincandescent lamps (2800 K, like a late, cool M star) as white. Only\nif we put these two lights side-by-side, at comparable intensities,\nwill we perceive a clear color difference.\n\nIf the Sun was a hot star (say of spectral type B), it's likely we\nstill would perceive its light as "white" and the sky's color as blue
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Holocene Soil Development on Till and Outwash Inferred from Lake-Sediment Geochemistry in Michigan and Wisconsin \nAuthors: Ewing H.A.1; Nater E.A.2\nSource: Quaternary Research, Volume 57, Number 2, March 2002, pp. 234-243(10)\n\nParent material. Few soils weather directly from the underlying rocks. These "residual" soils have the same general chemistry as the original rocks. More commonly, soils form in materials that have moved in from elsewhere. Materials may have moved many miles or only a few feet. Windblown "loess" is common in the Midwest. It buries "glacial till" in many areas. Glacial till is material ground up and moved by a glacier. The material in which soils form is called "parent material." In the lower part of the soils, these materials may be relatively unchanged from when they were deposited by moving water, ice, or wind.\n\nSediments along rivers have different textures, depending on whether the stream moves quickly or slowly. Fast-moving water leaves gravel, rocks, and sand. Slow-moving water and lakes leave fine textured material (clay and silt) when sediments in the water settle out.\n\nClimate. Soils vary, depending on the climate. Temperature and moisture amounts cause different patterns of weathering and leaching. Wind redistributes sand and other particles especially in arid regions. The amount, intensity, timing, and kind of precipitation influence soil formation. Seasonal and daily changes in temperature affect moisture effectiveness, biological activity, rates of chemical reactions, and kinds of vegetation.\n\nTopography. Slope and aspect affect the moisture and temperature of soil. Steep slopes facing the sun are warmer, just like the south-facing side of a house. Steep soils may be eroded and lose their topsoil as they form. Thus, they may be thinner than the more nearly level soils that receive deposits from areas upslope. Deeper, darker colored soils may be expected on the bottom land.\n\nBiological factors. Plants, animals, micro-organisms, and humans affect soil formation. Animals and micro-organisms mix soils and form burrows and pores. Plant roots open channels in the soils. Different types of roots have different effects on soils. Grass roots are "fibrous" near the soil surface and easily decompose, adding organic matter. Taproots open pathways through dense layers. Micro-organisms affect chemical exchanges between roots and soil. Humans can mix the soil so extensively that the soil material is again considered parent material.\n\nThe native vegetation depends on climate, topography, and biological factors plus many soil factors such as soil density, depth, chemistry, temperature, and moisture. Leaves from plants fall to the surface and decompose on the soil. Organisms decompose these leaves and mix them with the upper part of the soil. Trees and shrubs have large roots that may grow to considerable depths.\n\nTime. Time for all these factors to interact with the soil is also a factor. Over time, soils exhibit features that reflect the other forming factors. Soil formation processes are continuous. Recently deposited material, such as the deposition from a flood, exhibits no features from soil development activities. The previous soil surface and underlying horizons become buried. The time clock resets for these soils. Terraces above the active floodplain, while genetically similar to the floodplain, are older land surfaces and exhibit more development features.\n\nThese soil forming factors continue to affect soils even on "stable" landscapes. Materials are deposited on their surface, and materials are blown or washed away from the surface. Additions, removals, and alterations are slow or rapid, depending on climate, landscape position, and biological activity.\n\nWhen mapping soils, a soil scientist looks for areas with similar soil-forming factors to find similar soils. The colors, texture, structure, and other properties are d
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Dust in the upper atmosphere of Earth can make the moon appear to be yellow or orange, even red. The effect is strongest when the moon is near the horizon.
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1. Why the sky is blue.\nWhen light passes through a medium with molecules much smaller than the wavelength, it is scattered. You can understand it so: the light begins by going as a beam "forward". It gets absorbed for a moment by a molecule and then emitted again in whatever direction. This effect is more effective when the wavelength is shorter. Blue light has a wavelength ~2 times shorter than red light and gets scattered 16 times as effectively. So the beam coming directly from the sun is deprived of blue =>thus it is yellow (or red if it is sunset and it has passed a thick layer of atmosphere (geometry)). From all other directions we see the light that was going towards other points on the Earth. The yellows and reds went on and the blue was sent in other directions, including towards us.\n\n2. Why the grass is green.\nGreen plants use light to make food. The light is absorbed by chlorophyll (two types of it, too and a bit different, but no matter). Chlorophyll absorbs violet, blue, orange and red light. What we see is what was not absorbed, but reflected. If you take the aforementioned colours out of the white light spectrum, you get a mixtureof green and yellow. And green is the colour our eyes see best. Thus - green grass.\n\nI hope I've been clear
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For the same reason the sky looks blue. If the air were perfectly transparent and without dust or water vapor etc, you would see the distant greeny hill look green(y).\n\nBut due to the presence of microscopic dust in the air, the distant objects take on a very slightly bluish hue.
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soil pH typically varies on a much smaller scale than country or climate zone.  Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, some valleys have acid soil ("sour" to the old-school farmers who didn't have a meter fancier than their tongue) while over the next hill it may be "sweet," that is, neutral to basic.  Here it depends on the kind of rock under the soil.
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The earth's atmosphere scatters light.  That is why the sky is black at night (no light to scatter).  If you notice that toward the end of the day at sunset the sky turns orange and red. \n\nThat is because of your viewing angle relative to the light passing through the earth's atmosphere.  Due to the angle of the light from the sun relative to your eye at sunset, the light has to pass through more of the earth's atmosphere.  Orange and Red light have larger wavelengths and are able to penetrate the atmosphere, while blue light is not.  \n\nThat is why the sky is blue during the day, the higher energy (shorter wavelengths) of the blue light cannot escape into space through the atmosphere, it scatters making the sky appear blue.
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The most obvious answer is that it reflects the sky since you can see reflections of clouds also. But reflection is only part of the answer. \n\nIt is true that part of the light you see is a surface reflection of sky light. The amount of this sort of reflection, though, depends on a number of things such as your viewing angle. On the other hand, much of the color you see comes from the water's depths. \n\nWhite sunlight contains all colors. Water absorbs some of these colors more than others. But you need a lot of water to notice this effect - which is why water cupped in your hand has no color at all. In a large body of water though, the water molecules quickly absorb red light, but they don't absorb blue light nearly as well. So in this case, more blue light is transmitted through the water. It's actually the same principle behind why the sky is blue. \n\nThe blue effect is often increased because ocean and lake water usually contains floating particles of dirt, and dead and living plants and animals. They help reflect the blue light back upward - so that the lake or ocean looks blue. The blue-green of tropical waters is due entirely to absorption of red light rather then suspension of particles. It's a different blue than the blue of the oceans off the northeast coast, whose blue is caused by suspended particles and plants. \n\nSo now we know why some bodies of water appear blue, but what about the other water colors, like gray, brown and black? Different colors can be produced by specific things suspended in the water. Mud acts in the opposite way from water -- it reflects red light more than blue. So muddy water looks brown. Since rivers are big transporters of mud, they usually appear brown. Peat dissolved in water absorbs almost all the light that touches it - so a lake full of peat may look black. The ocean often usually looks gray on a stormy day. Partly, that's reflected gray sky - but it's also because clouds filter out a lot of the sun's red light before it ever reaches the water. \n\nColors of water can be pretty distinctive. The Black Sea is so named because of its color, a very dark almost black color. In this case, it's the almost constant fog over the Black Sea that absorbs incoming light and makes the sea appear black. It was enough to make the Turks and many other sailors want to avoid what they saw as an evil looking sea!
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The Earth is not a perfect sphere so you are at different distances from the centre at different places.\nThe density of the Earth is not constant so above dense rocks you appear slightly heavier.\nThe Earth spins so at the equator you are lifted slightly by the Eotovos effect.
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You mean the color of the sea in cost? the pollution changes the color of sand in costal areas the level of pollution varies in diff. areas. As well as some replied here difference in land scape also effects
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Soil and climate conditions.
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Colors in the sky occur when dust particles and debris are struck by sunlight rays and that alters their path.\n\nhttp://www.mountainnature.com/Climate/SkyColours.htm
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The color of the sky and water has to do with optical physics. Light is scattered by tiny particles like dust. Scientists use waves to describe how light moves through space. These light waves have different lengths (wavelengths). Each different wavelength corresponds to a different color of light. White light is made up of all the different colors and wavelengths of light. It turns out that short wavelengths of light are scattered more easily by particles and dust. Blue light is the shortest wavelength of light visible to the human eye, or the visible wavelength that scatters easiest.\n\nA simple answer is blue light is more easily scattered than the other colors of light.\n\nDuring a beautiful sunset the sun appears closer to the earth, and the light travels thru more dust and other particles that scatter light better. This allows for the more difficult wavelngths of light like orange and red light to be scattered.\n\nYeh.
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Light from the Sun is reflected off of the Earth  onto the Moon. Some of this light is then reflected off of the Moon back towards the Earth.  Because of this we see part of the Moon illuminated by the Sun and the rest of the Moon dimly illuminated by this doubly reflected light (which we call earthshine). Each time light reflects off a surface (like a planet), it gets dimmer because some of the light is absorbed by the reflecting surface. This means that earthshine is dimmer than moonlight because earthshine is sunlight that has been reflected twice and moonlight is sunlight that has been reflected only once (off the surface of the moon). In addition, the reflectivity of the moon (its "albedo") is less than that of the Earth, which makes earthshine even dimmer. \n\nHave you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night? This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.