A million-year-old lake located in ice holds the key to the strange liquid leaking out of the falls.
source: google
Since it was found more than a century ago, scientists have been confused by the deep red liquid seeping out of Antarctica’s Blood Falls. A new study, however, finally brings forward an explanation.
Following Australian geologist Griffith Taylor’s discovery the falls in 1911, most adopted his theory that the strange red liquid was water tainted with red algae. Ultimately, in 2003, many accepted the theory that the red color was the result of oxidized iron in the water.
Now, a new study published in the Journal of Glaciology fleshes out and supports the oxidized iron explanation.
The researchers concluded that there is in fact water containing oxidized iron moving through Blood Falls, water that originates from a strange million-year-old lake far under the ice.
Using echolocation tech, researchers were able to find the lake in question.
“We moved the antennae around the glacier in grid-like patterns so that we could ‘see’ what was underneath us inside the ice, kind of like a bat uses echolocation to ‘see’ things around it,” study co-author Christina Carr told The New York Post.
What’s more, the lake has remained liquid despite long being encased in ice. This is the result of a perpetual hydraulic system in which the freezing process of the water releases enough heat energy to melt the surrounding ice and create more water that will then freeze and on and on ad infinitum.
Thus the “blood” may continue to flow from Blood Falls for many more years to come.
Kindly upvote for science 😁