Blood Falls

Natural time capsule containing an alien ecosystem

Category Natural Wonders, Watery Wonders, Martian Landscapes, Fascinating Fauna, Wonders of Salt

Image of Blood Falls located in Taylor Glacier, Antarctica | Blood Falls pouring into Lake Bonney. A tent can be seen in the lower left for size comparison. Photo from the United States Antarctic Program Photo Library.

Blood Falls pouring into Lake Bonney. A tent can be seen in the lower left for size comparison. Photo from the United States Antarctic Program Photo Library.

Source photolibrary.usap.gov
Image of Blood Falls located in Taylor Glacier, Antarctica | Blood Falls pouring into Lake Bonney. A tent can be seen in the lower left for size comparison. Photo from the United States Antarctic Program Photo Library. Image of Blood Falls located in Taylor Glacier, Antarctica Image of Blood Falls located in Taylor Glacier, Antarctica | Photo taken by, and displayed with the permission of, <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/basagic/Antarctica20062007#5006276990671077970">Hassan Basagic</a>.

This five-story, blood-red waterfall pours very slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. When geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, they thought the red color came from algae, but its true nature turned out to be much more spectacular.

Roughly two million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist in a place with no light or free oxygen and little heat, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.

The existence of the Blood Falls ecosystem shows that life is indeed possible in the most extreme conditions on Earth. Though tempting to make the connection, it does not show, however, whether life could exist on other planets with similar environments and similar bodies of frozen water - notably Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa - as it would have to arise from a completely different chain of events.

Even if it doesn't confirm extraterrestrial life, this planet's Blood Falls is a wonder to behold both visually and scientifically.

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  • Hours Accessible only during Antarctic summer, which runs roughly from October through February.
  • Address Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
  • Cost Free.
Sources
Map/Directions

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The Dry Valleys are only accessible by helicopter from McMurdo Station (U.S.), Scott Base (New Zealand) or a cruise ship in the Ross Sea.

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Comments

  • canuck& canuck July 30, 2010
    I have been to the dry valleys and have seen these falls. Very impressive in person.
  • & Anonymous May 18, 2010
    no
  • & Anonymous March 6, 2010
    Removed Vandalism
  • godriguezilla& godriguezilla March 5, 2010
    OMGZ I wanna get McMurdered in this scary earthy blood fountain!
  • gavinkiely& gavinkiely March 3, 2010
    It's amazing to think that life could both survive and continue to evolve in such a confined and isolated region. I'd really love to see this, some day.
  • & Anonymous February 26, 2010
    SECOND IMPACT
  • & Anonymous February 24, 2010
    are they studying that shit? they better be fucking studying that shit
  • & Anonymous January 16, 2010
    omg they're playing stars of the lid in that video.
  • & Anonymous July 23, 2009
    This is amazing and beautiful!

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