106-year-old mystery in Antarctica just solved by science

Discovered more than 100 years ago, "Blood Falls" in Antarctica is one of the places that most interests explorers and scientists.

Recently, a group of researchers from two American universities, Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado, announced that they had solved the century-old mystery of "Blood Falls" in Antarctica.

Discovered in 1911 by British geologist Griffith Taylor (1880 – 1963), the Taylor Glacier Valley (named after him) in East Antarctica has become one of the most inhospitable regions of interest to explorers and scientists.

Because in this isolated Taylor Glacier Valley, there appears a strange waterfall, red as blood, which many scientists call "Blood Falls". More than 100 years have passed, many explanations have been given.

The red color of "Blood Falls" is the result of iron oxide precipitation when brine carrying unstable iron oxide comes into contact with oxygen in the air.

During the summer, the temperature in Antarctica is warmer, which gives the lake a chance to rise. That's why we see the strange "Blood Falls" flowing until today.

"With our equipment 'listening' to the echoes from the lake beneath the 400m thick ice sheet, just like bats use their ears to 'see' things in the dark, we 'saw' what was happening in this salt lake," added glaciologist Erin Pettit.

It is incredible to discover a lake of liquid water existing under a thick layer of ice that is below zero degrees. Interestingly, this lake containing iron is extremely salty, making it unable to freeze. And that liquid lake becomes an ecological environment for autotrophic archaea bacteria to live.

According to Khoahoc.tv