<p> Scientists have finally solved a century-old mystery involving a famous red waterfall in Antarctica by linking it to a large source of salty water.<br /><br />Blood Falls, found in 1911 by geologist Griffith Taylor in East Antarctica, is famous for its sporadic releases of iron-rich salty water. The brine turns red when the iron contacts air.<br /><br />Researchers, including those from University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in the US, have now provided new evidence which links the Blood Falls to a large source of salty water that may have been trapped under Taylor Glacier for more than one million years.<br /><br />They tracked the brine with radio-echo sounding, a radar method that uses two antenna - one to transmit electrical pulses and another to receive the signals.<br /><br />"We moved the antennae around the glacier in grid-like patterns so that we could 'see' what was underneath us inside the ice, kind of like a bat uses echolocation to 'see' things around it," said Christina Carr, a doctoral student at UAF.<br /><br />Researchers also made another significant discovery - that liquid water can persist inside an extremely cold glacier.<br /><br />Scientists had previously thought this was nearly impossible, but researchers said the freezing process explains how water can flow in a cold glacier.<br /><br />"While it sounds counterintuitive, water releases heat as it freezes, and that heat warms the surrounding colder ice," said Erin Pettit from UAF.<br /><br />The heat and the lower freezing temperature of salty water make liquid movement possible.<br />"Taylor Glacier is now the coldest known glacier to have persistently flowing water," Pettit said.<br />The study was published in the Journal of Glaciology.</p>
<p> Scientists have finally solved a century-old mystery involving a famous red waterfall in Antarctica by linking it to a large source of salty water.<br /><br />Blood Falls, found in 1911 by geologist Griffith Taylor in East Antarctica, is famous for its sporadic releases of iron-rich salty water. The brine turns red when the iron contacts air.<br /><br />Researchers, including those from University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in the US, have now provided new evidence which links the Blood Falls to a large source of salty water that may have been trapped under Taylor Glacier for more than one million years.<br /><br />They tracked the brine with radio-echo sounding, a radar method that uses two antenna - one to transmit electrical pulses and another to receive the signals.<br /><br />"We moved the antennae around the glacier in grid-like patterns so that we could 'see' what was underneath us inside the ice, kind of like a bat uses echolocation to 'see' things around it," said Christina Carr, a doctoral student at UAF.<br /><br />Researchers also made another significant discovery - that liquid water can persist inside an extremely cold glacier.<br /><br />Scientists had previously thought this was nearly impossible, but researchers said the freezing process explains how water can flow in a cold glacier.<br /><br />"While it sounds counterintuitive, water releases heat as it freezes, and that heat warms the surrounding colder ice," said Erin Pettit from UAF.<br /><br />The heat and the lower freezing temperature of salty water make liquid movement possible.<br />"Taylor Glacier is now the coldest known glacier to have persistently flowing water," Pettit said.<br />The study was published in the Journal of Glaciology.</p>