Mystery of the Bloody waterfall

The research team led by experts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College have uncovered a century-old mystery of the famous red waterfall in East Antarctica.

Bloody falls (eng. Blood Falls) known for its non-recurrent emissions, iron-rich salt water. The brine becomes red when the iron is in contact with air. Since the waterfall geologist Griffith Taylor in 1911, its source remained a mystery.

The lead author of a new study Jessica Bagli along with a scientist Erin Pettit and her band tracked the path of salt water by radio-echo-sounding. While the radar method uses two antennas — one for transmitting electrical impulses, and the other for receiving signals.

"We moved the antenna and recorded what was below us, inside the ice, similar to how a bat uses echolocation to see what was happening around her," — said co-author Christine CT.

So they found that salt water comes from the Taylor glacier, where its large reserves trapped over a million years ago. In his work, published in the Journal of Glaciology, the team describes a 90-meter path of the brine from under the glacier to the waterfall.

In addition, the researchers made another important discovery. It turned out that liquid water can persist inside extremely cold glacier. Previously, it was considered virtually impossible, but the process of freezing explains it in a cold glacier.

"As illogical as it may sound, water during freezing releases heat, which warms the surrounding ice. The heat combined with the low freezing point of salt water make possible the movement of the liquid," explained Pettit.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»