Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:The Last Mystery of the Blood Falls in Antarctica Has Also Finally Been Solved– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
There is a corner of Antarctica that looks like something out of a Cronenberg movie. It lies in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an immense frozen wilderness where, periodically, a stream of crimson-red liquid suddenly gushes from the dazzling white Taylor Glacier. They call them Blood Falls, or “falls of blood”, and since their discovery in 1911 by geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor, they have fuelled a century of scientific speculation.
Recently, a series of observations since 2018 have clarified several mysterious aspects, such as the nature of their reddish colour and what keeps them liquid at nearly 20 degrees below zero. New research published in the journal Antarctic Science has now added the final piece of the puzzle, clarifying what phenomena drive the falls to bubble up from underground.
Early Certainties
When these crimson falls were first discovered, Taylor attributed the colour to the presence of red microalgae. More than a century later, we now know that the red is due to iron particles trapped in nanospheres along with other elements such as silicon, calcium, aluminium and sodium. They were probably produced by ancient bacteria trapped underground in the area: once in contact with air, the iron oxidises, giving the mixture its characteristic rust colour.
As for the presence of liquid water, it is actually a hypersaline brine, formed about two million years ago when the waters of the Antarctic Ocean receded from the valleys. The very high salinity of this brine prevents the water from freezing, thus allowing it to gush out periodically.
The New Discovery
Having solved the temperature conundrum, the question remained as to what physically drove the fluid to erupt. The answer came by cross-referencing GPS data, thermal sensors and high-resolution images collected in 2018 during an eruption. The analysis showed that the Blood Falls are the result of pressure changes affecting brine deposits beneath the glacier.
As the Taylor Glacier slides downstream, the overlying ice mass compresses the subglacial channels, building up tremendous pressure. When the strain becomes unbearable, the ice gives way: pressurised brine seeps into the crevices and is shot out in short bursts. Curiously, this release acts as a hydraulic brake, temporarily slowing the glacier’s march. With this discovery, the mysteries of the Blood Falls should finally have been solved – for now at least. The impact of global warming on this complex system in the coming decades remains to be understood.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.