Why is the ocean blue but when you fill a glass with ocean water is clear?

This is actually a much more complicated question than it appears. Of course, the ocean is not ALWAYS blue, but it is often blue. It is different shades of blue at different times. It appears that the ocean's color is a combination of at least 3 processes:





1. reflection (from the blue sky above)


2. absorption (of other colors)


3. scattering (of the blue part of the spectrum by suspended particles in the water, or by the water itself).





One source I found said the scattering was because of the dissolved oxygen but I find that hard to believe. Another said that the scattering was mainly due to Raman scattering. That might be true.





The blue of the sky is mainly because of scattering by oxygen and nitrogen (Rayleigh-Tyndall scattering) except at sunrise and sunset, when the ozone apparently absorbs much of the redder and orange colored light, leaving the sky overhead a dark blue.





The glass of water is too small a quantity to view the blue color.Why is the ocean blue but when you fill a glass with ocean water is clear?
the ocean is the same color of the sky. if the sky is blue then the ocean is blue, if the sky are gray, the ocean is gray. if near the shoreline, where it is not deep, the ocean is the color of it's floor.





Water are transparent, hence there is not color to the water in the ocean. Only when they reflect something, it seems like the ocean has color.Why is the ocean blue but when you fill a glass with ocean water is clear?
the affect of light rays hitting the horizon acts to remove all colors but that of the blue spectrum leaving a blue hue. similar to the affect of ozone atmosphere. light hits ozone and resonates the color blue which gives the sky that look in the day.
Tap water is inert and pure, but the oceans are full of the dead souls of millions of astronauts who have died through the years, therby creating the deep bluish glow, which scientists call ';spookularia';, and is relatively harmless. It should not be feared as superstitious people believe, but treated with great respect and solemnity.
When sunlight hits the ocean it is scattered by the water molecules that compose the ocean. Sunlight is made up of all of the colors of the rainbow (red through violet). Water molecules scatter blue light the most. This makes the ocean appear blue.


But other factors can come into the picture so that the ocean doesn't appear blue! For instance, the shores of many areas of the ocean look green. This is because the blue we would normally see is mixed with the yellow pigments of floating plants...blue and yellow make green!





Another example of water not looking blue is the Yellow Sea. It looks yellow because of the great amounts of yellow mud carried into the Sea by surrounding rivers.
Water itself is colorless, what gives it color is the refraction of sunlight.
Good question! The ocean is blue because the sky is blue, and the ocean is reflecting the sky. See link. :)