Blood falls

Nature

Blood Falls is a dark red stream that periodically emerges from Taylor Glacier in Antarctica. It is not blood or algae but extremely salty, iron-rich water released from beneath hundreds of metres of ice. The salt prevents it from freezing; when the dissolved iron reaches the air, it oxidizes and stains the glacier red through the same basic chemistry as rust. Evidence suggests the brine began as ancient seawater trapped beneath the advancing glacier.