Ken Leavy, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, may have finally solved the mystery of the mysterious “Bloody Falls” on the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica. Discovered more than 100 years ago during the infamous Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica in 1911, Blood Falls is named after the bright red water that appears to flow from the waterfalls.

While many believe the waterfall has turned red due to minerals in the water, a new study of samples taken from the drop point points to an entirely different culprit. Leavy says the color of the water comes from tiny iron-rich nanospheres filled with tons of other elements, like calcium, silicon, sodium and aluminum, rather than minerals.

Levy believes it’s these nanospheres that help reveal the secret of the waterfall’s red color. In a statement posted on his website, Levy explains that although nanospheres are composed of different elements, they are not exactly minerals. Johns Hopkins. You can find the full article on the discovery at Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

Levy says he and his team have not seen nanospheres before because they are so small and previous research has looked for evidence of minerals. But the nanospheres went undetected because they didn’t match the crystal structure we see in minerals. Leavy says that to fully understand the mystery of Blood Falls, you need to understand the microbiology of Antarctica.

“Below the salty waters of the Antarctic ice sheet are microorganisms that have potentially existed for millions of years. These are ancient waters,” he said. So the nanospheres we see here may have existed since ancient times, even before modern humans roamed the planet. All kinds of bacteria live in these waters, which may not have changed in thousands of years, Leavy says.

While Levy is confident that he and his team have solved the mystery of the Blood Falls, he says the researcher has only uncovered one more mystery that we need to solve in order to accurately identify similar elements on other planets such as Mars. But by studying these extremes on Earth, we can hope to be better prepared for a manned mission to Mars and other planets.