Blood Falls, named for its ruddy color, is not in fact a gush of blood from some unseen wound. The color was initially chalked up to red algae, but a new study in the Journal of Glaciology has uncovered its true origin using radar to scan the layers of ice from which the river pours. Imaging from underneath the glacier helped solve the mystery, revealing a complex network of subglacial rivers and a subglacial lake—all filled with brine high in iron, giving the falls its reddish tint.
What’s Really In Antarctica’s Mysterious Blood Falls
