The science behind the turquoise waters at Pyramid Lake

PYRAMID LAKE, Nev. (News 4 and FOX 11) — Over the past week, the waters at Pyramid Lake have been turning a strange color...a light blue and even white! Lake experts say this a somewhat rarer aragonite whiting event because of the higher levels of calcium carbonate in the water.

Pyramid Lake also just had an algae and plankton bloom, so that's another big contributing factor.

Another contributing factor is this time of year. The lake itself is much warmer and calmer during late summer. All of these help decrease the PH enough to create this phenomenon.

Good news is that what's happening there is not dangerous to the aquatic life, but rather a natural chemical process.

"When the algae breaks down and decomposes, it grabs some of the nutrients and pollutants along with the algae on its way down to the bottom of the lake. It helps improve water quality and release nitrogen," said Pyramid Lake Fisheries Director Daniel Mosley.

So the nitrogen actually benefits the aquatic life.

"So I got one photo that was at the beginning stages. You could see it was so pronounced. You could see how it was past going towards the deeper basin, past Idaho Island at Pyramid. It looked like a swirling event. It looked like it was swirling out there. We do have a current on the lake," continued Mosley.

The whitening now covers the entire surface of the water. Due to Covid 19 and a lack of resources, experts aren't exactly sure how far down this is happening nor how long this will last.

But the event is rare, as it only occurs once every decade or so.

For the whitening (or calcium carbonate) to occur, the PH level of the water has to decrease or become more acidic.

The lake is naturally more alkaline, so when the algae bloom in August, then this is more likely to occur.