NSF-Funded Researchers Solve the Century-Old Mystery of Blood Falls

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Posted May 8, 2017

Image: Elizabeth Mockbee, NSF

An NSF funded research team led University of Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College recently announced it has solved a century-old mystery involving a famous red waterfall in Antarctica. New evidence links Blood Falls to a large source of salty water that may have been trapped under Taylor Glacier for more than one million years.

The team’s study, published in the Journal of Glaciology, describes the brine’s 300-foot path from beneath Taylor Glacier to the waterfall. This path has been a mystery since geoscientist Griffith Taylor discovered Blood Falls in 1911.

Lead author Jessica Badgeley, then an undergraduate student at Colorado College, worked with University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist Erin Pettit and her research team to understand this unique feature. They used a type of radar to detect the brine feeding Blood Falls.

“The salts in the brine made this discovery possible by amplifying contrast with the fresh glacier ice,” Badgeley said.

Read more in a UAF news release here: https://news.uaf.edu/researchers-solve-the-100-year-old-mystery-of-blood-falls/