Blood Falls : Antarctica

[Pink.]

There is a five-story, blood-red waterfall pouring slowly from the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley. Its back story, at Atlas Obscura, is simply remarkable:


http://static.atlasobscura.com/place/blood-falls

The existence of the Blood Falls ecosystem shows that life is indeed possible in the most extreme of conditions. Life could perhaps exist on other planets with similar environments and similar bodies of frozen water - notably Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa. But regardless of extraterrestrial life, the earth's Blood Falls are a wonder to behold both visually, and scientifically.




Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.

[Jere]

cool like to see this in real life.good post!

[Soar]

That picture is amazing.

[Aria]

cool like to see this in real life.good post!

:D Let's have all of DR take a trip there!

[lawlshane]

I can only imagine how freaked out the people who discovered that were.

[güttsfükk]

that's really interesting, when i first saw the pic i thought it would end up being a result of the seal hunt season

This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows Iron oxides staining the snout of the Taylor Glacier, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, forming a feature commonly referred to as Blood Falls. The iron originates from ancient subglacial brine that episodically discharges to the surface. Outflow collected at Blood Falls provides access to a unique subglacial ecosystem that harbors a microbial consortium which actively cycles iron, sulfur and carbon for growth.

[firedog25]

Mother Nature is having a rather heavy flow this month, how embarrassing.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Aria

:D Let's have all of DR take a trip there!

Shotgun!

[Brainplague]

Great post! I bet the folks that first found it were REALLY freaked out.

Great Post :)