Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake is a freshwater lake located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Named by early mountaineering guides because of its extraordinary colour. Glaciers once covered this area and as the ice retreats, their meltwaters pick up a variety of sedimentary materials and carry it downstream to depressions surrounded by glacial debris, creating glacier-water lakes like this. The green or turqoise colour is from the finely ground-up rock flour suspended in the water: the scattering effect which the suspended particles has on the light, combined with the reflection of blue sky, gives the water its remarkable blue-green colour.
Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.
Duration: 1 hour