Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Glacier Bleeding

What looks like blood gushes from a glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. The five-storey, red waterfall known as the Blood Falls got its name after explorer and geologist Griffith Taylor stumbled across it in 1911 and thought it resembled blood pouring from a wound.  Scientists have found that the natural phenomenon occurs when iron oxide, trapped deep beneath the glacier in a hidden lake, reacts with living microbes in the water.
What looks like blood gushes from a glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.

The five-storey, red waterfall known as the Blood Falls got its name after explorer and geologist Griffith Taylor stumbled across it in 1911 and thought it resembled blood pouring from a wound. Scientists have found that the natural phenomenon occurs when iron oxide, trapped deep beneath the glacier in a hidden lake, reacts with microbes in the water.

Picture: CATERS NEWS

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