Venice Grand Canal

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

The spectacular transformation of a stretch of Venice’s Grand Canal to fluorescent green was due to fluorescein, a non-toxic substance used for testing wastewater networks, local authorities have concluded
Residents noticed a stretch of Venice’s Grand Canal turned bright green on Sunday, prompting police to investigate amid speculation it could be a stunt by environmentalists.
Local authorities has said that test samples of the water confirmed that the canal’s bright new hue was caused by fluorescein, a chemical often used to find leaks during underwater construction. Now, Italian officials are investigating how the chemical got into the canal.

About Fluorescein

Fluorescein is an organic compound and dye based on the xanthene tricyclic structural motif, formally belonging to triarylmethine dyes family.
It is available as a dark orange/red powder slightly soluble in water and alcohol. It is widely used as a fluorescent tracer for many applications.
The color of its aqueous solutions is green by reflection and orange by transmission (its spectral properties are dependent on pH of the solution), as can be noticed in bubble levels, for example, in which fluorescein is added as a colorant to the alcohol filling the tube in order to increase the visibility of the air bubble contained within.
More concentrated solutions of fluorescein can even appear red (because under these conditions nearly all incident emission is re-absorbed by the solution).
It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines.

About the famous canal and gondolas of Venice-

Located in northern Italy, the city of Venice has a unique geography.
It is a collection of over 118 small islands spread over a lagoon, which is a kind of water body that is separated from a larger water body through some kind of land formation.
Covering 70,176.4 ha, Venetian lagoon is separated from the Adriatic Sea.
According to UNESCO, temporary settlements in the 5th century gradually became permanent here, comprising land-dwelling peasants and fishermen.
UNESCO states that Venice and its lagoon landscape is the result of a dynamic process which illustrates the interaction between people and the ecosystem of their natural environment over time.

Venice(City of Canals)-

Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea.
The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile).
It has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces.
The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.