You’ve likely heard the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” but what if the rainbow was at your feet?
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials posted a photo Tuesday of a “rare” natural phenomenon known as a rainbow pool.
USFWS said the colorful sheen across the water’s surface is a result of natural oils being released from decaying vegetation or from bacteria breaking down iron in the soil.
“These factors, coupled with several days of calm, undisturbed water and just the right angle of sunlight, will result in this seldom-seen phenomenon,” USFWS said.
Officials said rainbow pools usually appear in certain types of swamps and marshes.
The photo above was taken at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia.
It’s the largest intact remnant of a vast forested wetland that once covered more than one million acres of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, according to the refuge’s website.