Chalk one up for science. A mystery has apparently been solved.
The mystery was the source of Blood Falls in Antarctica. Blood Falls is a somewhat bizarre flow of water at the outlet of a glacier that is colored, indeed, blood red. The red comes from iron-loving brine extremophile bacteria.
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| Blood Falls |
But where does the salty water that supports the extremophile bacteria come from? That's what's been solved.
Century old mystery of Antarctica's Blood Falls SOLVED
"The American researchers tracked the brine with radio-echo sounding, a radar method that uses two antenna—one to transmit electrical pulses and one to receive the signals.
While analyze the scans, the team had seen something that until now was deemed impossible – liquid water was able to keep its form inside of the extremely cold glacier that flowed through a 300-foot long path."
So, by proving that the brine is flowing under the glacier, they basically confirmed that the source is a subglacial brine reservoir further upstream from Blood Falls.
Cool.
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