So imagine, in the midst of Antarctica, there's a gushing area of blood-red liquid coming out of the ice. Well, it's not imaginary, it's real. It's aptly named "Blood Falls, " and the substance that's oozing out of the ice isn't blood, but rather microbes and living organisms, from a lake deep underneath the Taylor glacier. New research shows that the lake has a high salt content and the microbes in it contain iron molecules. The salt keeps the lake from freezing. Because of climate change, small surface cracks that have occurred as a result of warming temperatures, have allowed some of these microbes and lake water to escape to the surface. When the oxygen in the air combines with the microbes, it turns red. Interestingly, for the same reason our blood is when it hits the air, it contains iron as well.
Scientists have studied Blood Falls for decades, and the latest information from researchers in Tennessee has used radio waves to map the lake that has existed for millions of years under the ice. So that's why the water runs red in the McMurdo Dry Valley of Antarctica.
