“Bloodfall” What is this red thing that looks like blood in this formation called? Could there really be blood?

No problem, This age-old mystery has been solved in recent years. You probably can’t guess the reason even if you think about it!

“Bloodfall”, which gets its name from its color, looks exactly like blood.

from Antarctica This is a five-story waterfall in Taylor Valley. The biggest reason why it doesn’t look like regular waterfalls is, as you might guess, its blood-red color. So why is the color of the water flowing here really red?

For years, To understand the source of red tide under glaciers Various theories have been put forward. An expedition by a National Geographic team solved this mystery. By scanning beneath the glaciers using radar, scientists discovered the existence of a complex network beneath the glacier: a labyrinth of subglacial rivers and lakes.

These rivers and lakes were filled with salt water with a high iron content.

The ability of this salty water not to freeze is ours. It explained the origin of the red water flowing from the blood trap. Normally this salty water should have been frozen, but the freezing point remained low due to the high salt content and the action of iron. This allowed it to remain liquid under the glaciers.

But not only don’t freeze, Also salt waterThey also found that it penetrates into cracks beneath the glacier, melting the ice. This explained to us how a continuous stream formed under the glacier.

This flow could be seen even in the coldest glacier.

Let’s talk about the red color of this stream. This color is completely in the flow. This is due to the high amount of iron. Looking at the research, we see that the salinity in the water increases the closer we get to the falls. As you would expect, this shows that the color of the water intensifies towards the falls.

When small pieces are examined under the microscope, derived from ancient microbes and rich in iron They appear to consist of nanospheres. These nanospheres were abundant in the meltwater of the Taylor Glacier.

These nanospheres not only contain iron, but also elements such as silicon, calcium, aluminum and sodium.

This unique combination subglacial water does not have enough oxygen for a long timeIt causes it to turn red after interacting with sunlight and temperature. The fact that these structures are not crystalline has made them difficult to detect using traditional methods.

Taylor Glacier, named after the discoverer of Blood Falls From British scientist Thomas Griffith Taylor taken.

Estimated to have evolved in isolation for millions of years, this glacier is an ancient structure hundreds of meters beneath the ice. host a microbial community doing.

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