The Moselle river has usually no clear and transparent waters. Only in very few days of the year (see photo above) we have the privilege of a limpid and clear river.
Most of the time, the water has a greenish color and some turbidity, I suppose caused by micro-algae in suspension.
In periods of high current and high water level, the color turns to brown and the appearence is muddy.
It should have been different a few centuries ago, when Ausonius wrote
“And with no filthy slime do you bedew”
and
“And gems that match what our craftsmen devise
Are underneath your teeming waters shown,
While mottled plants uncover many a stone
Beneath your placid waves; but as we gaze,
A swarm of slippery fish wanders and plays,
Taxing our eyes.”
The Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz (LfU) provides a chart of turbidity, that shows an evident increases of turbitidy when the water flow increases.
Ranges empiricaly observed so far go from 5 (almost transparent water) to 300 (very muddy).
Above, other two examples of low turbidity water on 20 July 2024, 220 cm and 90 m3/s, turbidity 4.5 TE/F
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