Marble Cave

An azure temple created by nature, the walls of this network of water-filled marble caverns. Visitors to the water-sculpted blue caverns see light reflected off the turquoise waters of South America's second largest freshwater lake, General Carrera in Patagonia, Chile.

Light bounces into the caverns and strikes the carved marble walls, creating this enchanting lightshow. The incredible set of pictures has been captured by landscape photographer and environmentalist, Linde Waidehofer, 67, from Colorado, USA. 'It is the water that formed the unique shapes of the marble walls,' explained Ms Waidehofer in her book on the caverns, Blue Light.

'Originally great ice-fields blocked the western end of the lake - today its glacier-fed waters drain into the Pacific Ocean.'Geologists have a simple explanation for the breath-taking blue of this giant lake.'They talk of finely ground glacial silt which makes the water an unearthly blue and crystal clear.'These waters are magic.'

 The water itself can vary from turquoise to deep blue depending on the weather and the time of year. 'In early spring the water of the lake is at its lowest point because the surrounding glaciers have not yet started to melt.'So the light will be reflected in a totally different way than later in the year after the melting glaciers have raised the water level over a metre.

Sources : Wikipedia & Google Images