text: Very low water clarity can be found where high loads of suspended sediments are transported from land. Some examples are estuaries where rivers with high loads of sediments empty into the ocean. One example is the Río de la Plata, an estuary in South America between Uruguay and Argentina where the Uruguay River and the Parana River empty into the Atlantic ocean. The Río de la Plata shows long-term mean TSS concentrations between 20 and 100 grams per cubic meter, higher than most estuaries. Another example is the gulf coast of North America where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. Turbid water from snowmelt and rain washes high loads of sediment downstream each spring, creating a sediment plume and making the water clarity very low. Water bodies can also experience low water clarity after extreme events like volcanic eruptions. After the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the water of Spirit Lake, Washington was darkened by decaying trees in the lake and had a Secchi depth of only 1 to 2 centimeters.