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  1. Blood Falls - Wikipedia

    • Blood Falls is an outflow of an iron(III) oxide–tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Iron-rich hypersaline water sporadically emerges from small fissures in the ice cascades. The saltwater source is a su… See more

    Geochemistry

    Poorly soluble hydrous ferric oxides are deposited at the surface of ice after the ferrous ions present in the … See more

    Microbial ecosystem

    Chemical and microbial analyses both indicate that a rare subglacial ecosystem of autotrophic bacteria developed that metabolizes sulfate and ferric ions. According to geomicrobiologist Jill Mikucki at the … See more

    Implications for the Snowball Earth hypothesis

    According to Mikucki et al. (2009), the now-inaccessible subglacial pool was sealed off 1.5 to 2 million years ago and transformed into a kind of "time capsule", isolating the ancient microbial population for a sufficiently … See more

    Implications for astrobiology

    This unusual place offers scientists a study deep subsurface microbial life in extreme conditions without the need to drill deep boreholes in the polar ice cap, with the associated contamination risk of a fragile and still-int… See more

    See also

    • Extremophiles (organisms resistant to extreme conditions)
    • Cryoconcentration of hypersaline brines
    • Life on Mars See more

    Further reading

    • Lerman, Abraham (February 2009). "Saline Lakes' Response to Global Change". Aquatic Geochemistry. 15 (1–2): 1–5. Bibcode:2009AqGeo..15....1L. doi:10.1007/s10498-008-9058-8. S2CID 129653802… See more

     
  1. Blood Falls

    Blood Falls is a waterfall of vibrant red water that oozes out of Antarctica's Taylor Glacier. Its unique color is due to iron salts seeping out of the ice that turn red when exposed to oxygen. The falls are home to microbes that can survive extreme conditions, with no light or oxygen.
    www.businessinsider.com/blood-falls-photos-antarctica-science-explains-what-causes-color-2023-1
    www.businessinsider.com/blood-falls-photos-antarctica-science-explains-what-c…
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  3. Blood Falls in Antarctica: why do they bleed red water? | WIRED

  4. The Eerie Mystery of 'Blood Falls' in Antarctica Is Finally …

    Jul 4, 2023 · In 1911, during a British expedition to Antarctica, researchers were shocked to notice a glacier 'bleeding' from its tongue onto an ice-covered lake. The crimson drool is known as Blood Falls, and it's taken experts more than a …

  5. Antarctica’s Blood Red Waterfall - Smithsonian Magazine

  6. Origin of Antarctica's eerie Blood Falls | Earth | EarthSky

    May 18, 2015 · Blood Falls is a bright red waterfall oozing from Antarctica’s ice. It’s nearly five stories high, in the McMurdo Dry Valley region, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth, a...

  7. Mystery of Blood Falls, Inside Taylor Glacier in …

    Oct 22, 2018 · Blood Falls, named for its ruddy color, is not in fact a gush of blood from some unseen wound. The color was initially chalked up to red algae, but a study in the Journal of Glaciology has...

  8. Blood Falls gushes red water from Antarctica's ice. It …

    Jan 10, 2023 · Blood Falls is a waterfall of vibrant red water that oozes out of Antarctica's Taylor Glacier. Its unique color is due to iron salts seeping out of the ice that turn red when exposed to oxygen....

  9. Antarctica's Bleeding Glacier: The Blood Falls …

    Oct 5, 2023 · Though it's surrounded by typical icy whiteness, the liquid rushing forth is a striking rusty red. The cause of this phenomenon was a mystery when the falls were discovered, with the first...

  10. Blood Falls – Antarctica - Atlas Obscura

    Aug 5, 2011 · This five-story, blood-red waterfall pours very slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys. When geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, they...

  11. Antarctica Blood Falls' Red Water Explained