Many times we have seen the magnificent waters falling from great heights creating spectacular scenery. But have you ever seen blood falls?!
This Mystery is of Antarctica, The Taylor Glacier in the Taylor Valley. It was seen that this glacier had a waterfall but wait. It is blood red colored! It was from then named Blood Falls. This was a totally baffling mystery for the scientists. It was discovered by an Australian Geologist, Griffith Taylor in 1911.
The researchers first suggested that this was the work of some algae which gave the liquid its color. But as the technology advanced, it was found to be an iron oxide tainted outflow of saltwater. Its source was a reservoir of saltwater of Red Colour, covered by 400 meters of ice. As the content of this water contained some kind of salt, the Taylor Glacier did not freeze till bedrock, the water here spurts out from small fissures on the surface of the Glacier which seems like a real Blood Waterfall.
This phenomenon is due to the oxidation of ferrous ions in saltwater. Even under such extreme conditions, a study found that microbes still exist that respire anaerobically by using sulphates to metabolize ferric ions. According to geomicrobiologist Jill Mikucki at the University of Tennessee, water samples from Blood Falls contained at least 17 different types of microbes and almost no oxygen. There are many possibilities over this that scientists are yet to figure out.
I know this may have scared you a bit, but living in a scientific world gives a theory or explanation for everything, except some
As the future comes, more mysteries will pop up but will soon be solved by new advancements in the field of science.
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