Roughly 2 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 without heat, light, or oxygen, 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.
via Antarctic Glacier Has Five-story Blood-red Waterfall of Primodial Ooze – GOOD Blog – GOOD.
Favorite This!
what do you suppose the striped “thing” to the left side is? A beach ball, Maybe a bouy for the beac so no one goes swimming in a boating area.
photolibrary.usap.gov/
^^If you get back to the original source, there’s a lot of scientific stuff going on around it. I assume the beach ball has something to do w/ that.
According to the photo library link nyokki posted it’s a TENT. Which means that waterfall’s a lot bigger than it looks in that photo.
This, wow this is big. I think this will give us a unique opportunity to see how organisms can evolve, and how extremophiles can function with such little resources
It is exciting. In the last few years we’re running into all kinds of interesting things at the bottom of the oceans, on other planets and now, hiding under ice.
The ooze of life!
2 points for wether change? y/n silver lining