Turquoise Lake beneath a Hanging Glacier

Turquoise Lake beneath a Hanging Glacier is an original illustration set in Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is subarctic — long freezing winters, brief summers.

Opaque turquoise water fills a long mountain basin beneath the pale Victoria Glacier. Dark spruce forest encloses both shores, gray scree fans descend from layered peaks, and a few red canoes near the foreground make the immense lake and ice wall legible.

Why is this mountain lake an opaque turquoise beneath a hanging glacier?

Glaciers ground bedrock into extremely fine mineral particles and meltwater carried that rock flour into the basin dammed by glacial debris. Suspended grains scatter blue-green light, producing the saturated opaque color rather than the clear reflection of an ordinary lake. The U-shaped valley, fresh scree, remaining ice and milky water together reveal a landscape still being shaped by alpine glaciation.

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