Monday, April 27, 2015

Blood Falls and other natural oddities

Most people won't see Blood Falls in person, but even in photographs, the sight is arresting: a blood-red waterfall staining the snow-white face of Taylor Glacier. The place was documented in 1911 by geographer/geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor, a member of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic. Since then, glaciologists and microbiologists have sought to determine what causes the mysterious red flow. They've concluded that the source is a subterranean lake rich in the iron that gives the water its red hue. Stranger still, recent research has revealed microorganisms living 1,300 feet beneath the ice, sustained by the iron and sulfur in the water.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/travel/natural-oddities/index.html

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