NASA shares image of bizarre orange and green lake

Nestled high up in the Chilean Andes Mountains is a lake that defies all expectation of how such bodies of water should look.

Rather than sticking with a conventional color scheme, Laguna del Negro Francisco boasts a unique combination of orange and green.

A photo taken by an astronaut stationed on the ISS shows a sand bank separates the lake's two distinct regions.

The orange area, which measures roughly 3 miles long, owes its appearance to a combination of shallow water, accelerated evaporation, and the algae that feed on salt accumulations.

Conversely, the green section is deep, lushly vegetated, and the beneficiary of greater watershed.

Though the lake is separated now, evidence of previous shoreline locations suggests the waters do sometimes rise, turning the two portions into one.

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