Antarctica is the coldest and whitest place on earth. Everything is covered in blinding snow and solid blue ice. But if you travel to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, you will find a sight that looks like it belongs in a horror movie.
Pouring straight out of the pure white face of the Taylor Glacier is a massive waterfall of thick red liquid. It looks exactly like a giant bleeding wound in the ice. Explorers appropriately named it Blood Falls. For over a century, the bleeding glacier was a complete and terrifying mystery to the scientists who first laid eyes on it.
The Mystery of the Bleeding Ice
When an Australian geologist first discovered this bizarre sight in the early nineteen hundreds, he was completely baffled. He thought the bright red color was caused by a massive bloom of red algae frozen in the water. But as modern researchers dug deeper into the ice, they found a reality that was way more fascinating than simple plants.
The red liquid is not blood and it is definitely not algae. It is actually highly pressurized saltwater leaking out from a hidden lake.
This subglacial lake has been completely sealed off from the outside world by a massive layer of ice for over two million years. The water is totally trapped in the dark. It is so incredibly salty that it physically cannot freeze even in the freezing temperatures of the South Pole.
A Time Capsule of Extreme Life
This ancient hidden lake is completely cut off from sunlight and fresh air. It sounds like a totally dead environment where nothing could ever survive. But scientists made a shocking discovery when they tested the red water flowing out of the glacier. The dark lake is absolutely packed with microscopic life.
A bizarre community of ancient microbes evolved to survive in absolute darkness. Since they cannot use sunlight for energy like normal plants, they basically eat the solid iron scraped off the bedrock underneath the glacier. They consume raw minerals and sulfur to stay alive in a totally alien environment. Because of this bizarre diet, the trapped water is incredibly rich with dissolved iron.
The Chemistry of the Red Plume
So why does the water look like a gruesome crime scene? The answer is a sudden and violent chemical reaction.
As the trapped subglacial lake gets squeezed by the heavy moving glacier, some of the water is forced out through tiny cracks in the ice. The water is actually perfectly clear while it is still inside the dark glacier. But the exact second this iron rich liquid hits the outside air, it interacts with the oxygen.
The dissolved iron instantly rusts.
The liquid essentially turns into flowing liquid rust as it tumbles down the face of the pure white glacier. The stark contrast between the bright ice and the deep red rust creates the terrifying illusion of flowing blood. Blood Falls is a creepy and beautiful reminder of the extreme survival skills of nature. It proves that life can find a weird way to thrive in the darkest and most isolated corners of our planet.
References: National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes