Shining Sea
Glowing algae light up California’s largest lake

Taken on the southern shore of the Salton Sea, this eight-second exposure is lit from three sources: the moon overhead, the lights of a nearby power plant, and mysterious bioluminescent algae blooming in the water. Waves agitating the single-celled organisms cause a chemical reaction within them that releases energy in the form of light. San Diego State University biologists collected the first samples of the glowing algae from the lake in January and have identified them as dinoflagellates in the genus Alexandrium, a kind of algae typically found along ocean coastlines. The scientist's next tasks are to determine whether the algae are a new species and to figure out what's fueling their recent growth.