Blood Falls Glacier Taylor

Antarctica has always been a mystery. And not only for ordinary travelers, but also for researchers, and if I may say so, the natural processes of experts in this part of the world. One of the mysteries that scientists had to study in Antarctica — it’s «Blood Falls». It is this name was unusual waterfall having a blood-red color.

This spectacle is clearly contradictory feelings. It’s like attracts and repels, and it’s all happening at the same time. At times, to be near such a source becomes even scary. Although, in the end, it’s just colored water. The source of the unique waterfall is a small lake, which is located under the four-meter thick ice.

I can not surprise scientists and current fact that the waterfall is flowing even during severe frosts. All these properties of the source found on the glacier Taylor, of course, have been the object of research. The first thing that the scientists suggested, seeing the phenomenon that such a blood-red color of the water is determined by the presence of red algae. However, on closer study, this hypothesis was not confirmed.

Further study of the source led to the surprise of scientists. After a bloody color of water turned the most ordinary iron. Scientists explain this phenomenon as follows. When sampling, living organisms were found in the water. And as has been described above, the lake, the water that erupt on the surface, is as it were imprisoned under a huge ball of ice. This fact led to the fact that living organisms are deprived of normal conditions for the development and life (ie nutrition and photosynthesis).

In any extreme conditions all living beings trying to find a way out and save lives. It was not an exception and the microorganisms living in the bloody lake in Antarctica. If we speak in plain language, the microorganisms have adapted to use environmental organics, and learned to breathe iron. And products from this livelihoods stained the water red. The reason for the anti-freezing water was its salt saturation.