The Mystery of Blood Falls

[PPI Brian]

First discovered in 1911, the Bloody Falls of Antarctica, a "bloody" column of water coming out of a glacier, have both puzzled and ultimately surprised scientists by revealing an ancient lake encapsulated beneath the glacier. The red tint comes from the ancient microbes living in the lake, which managed to survive for hundreds of centuries without heat, oxygen or light.

http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-mysterious-blood-falls.html

[PPI Brian]

Here's a youtube video on the bloody falls --

The questions posed by the video and the above article are intriguing. Obviously organisms can not only survive but thrive in hostile conditions, but Antarctica was not always a frozen wasteland. The fossil record indicates that the climate was once much warmer, even tropical. This was of course before plate tectonics shifted the continent to its present location. Are these organisms survivors from that earlier time? And do these organisms prove that microbial life could exist in similar environments, such as Europa, Callisto, Enceladus and Titan? 

http://www.youtube.com/v/P_fzqq0LdZ8&hl=en_US&fs=1&

[PPI Tim]

Is that only happening at the south pole or is this same thing happen else where in the world?

[PPI Brian]

Blood Falls is unique to Antarctica. The Taylor Glacier trapped a shallow salt water inlet as it advanced toward the ocean 4 million years ago. The microbes trapped under 1300 feet of ice apparently breathe iron, because they have managed to survive without sunlight or heat. Pretty amazing, don't you think?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090416-blood-falls.html

[Gary]

It's very strange.  Imagine stumbling across that for the first time and wondering what the heck it could be!!! 

[PPI Brian]

I agree. How strange it must be. I wonder if such conditions could exist on Mars beneath the vast expanses of dust covered glaciers that NASA's MRO and ESA's Mars Express imaged.

MRO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20081120.html



Mars Express:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMCHPYEM4E_1.html

[PPI Tracy]

Wow!  Those are just amazing photos!

[PPI Brian]

Amazing, isn't it? And just this week the scientific community announced "Vast Oceans Once Existed on Mars". Duh! Where the heck have these folx been the last twenty years???

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100614-ancient-mars-oceans-deltas-science/

[PPI Tracy]

No doubt, Brian!