Run-offs from floods in Southern France : The image by Aqua/MODIS shows the area of floods on Sep. 15, 2002; torrential rains earlier in the week led to the severe flooding along tributaries of the Rhone River. Silt displaced by the flooding is caught up in the waters of the Rhone and deposited into the Golfe du Lion. The silt appears brown-green in the true-color imagery because of the way that sunlight reflects off of it, and its pattern of streaks and clouds is due to currents in the water. Eventually, after the flooding stops carrying so much silt to the Golfe, the silt will disperse and the waters will return to their predominantly blue-black color.