Blood Falls is a natural—not supernatural—phenomenon! It is a liquid outflow at the snout of Taylor Glacier in East Antarctica. Many glaciers have icy outflows, but few of them are salty, and even fewer are red. Blood Falls is a plume rising from an ancient hypersaline lake trapped beneath Taylor Glacier’s 400 meters (1,312 feet) of ice. About 5 million years ago, the ocean flooded East Antarctica, creating a salty inland lake. Around 3 million years later, glaciers formed over the saline lake, trapping a basin of pristine saltwater that has been isolated for nearly 2 million years. Blood Falls is a plume rising from an ancient hypersaline lake trapped beneath Taylor Glacier’s 400 meters (1,312 feet) of ice. About 5 million years ago, the ocean flooded East Antarctica, creating a salty inland lake. Around 3 million years later, glaciers formed over the saline lake, trapping a basin of pristine saltwater that has been isolated for nearly 2 million years. Blood Falls source lake is not actually red. Its subglacial conditions exclude oxygen and light, but include large amounts of iron. The salty, iron-rich water only becomes red as it interacts with the oxygen-rich surface environment at the falls.Reddish particles form as a result of a chemical reaction between iron and oxygen. The presence of salt increases the rate of this reaction, allowing the salty water at Blood Falls to appear bright red as it trickles down the glacier. Scientists think iron entered Blood Falls’ subglacial lake through the scraping motion of Taylor Glacier and the activity of unusual microbes called extremophiles. Extremophiles are able to withstand and even thrive in extremely harsh environments, including freezing and boiling temperatures. youtube/watch?v=pIaf9LDJR9c
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:53:32 +0000
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