Global Courant
After 112 years, scientists discovered what causes the red color of the water that seeps from a glacier in Antarctica.
A group of American researchers managed to solve a mystery that had intrigued the scientific community for 112 years, by discovering that the red color of the water that seeps from a glacier in Antarctica is caused by iron-rich nanospheres, reported Monday. Johns Hopkins University.
After 112 years they discovered what causes the red color of water (Peter Rejcek).
In 1911, British geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor observed, during the “Terra Nova” Antarctic expedition, that at the rocky base of a glacier that currently bears his name, a liquid that resembled blood gushed out, turning the clear water into a reddish hue, he reports. RT.
Named “Blood Falls” by Taylor, this phenomenon remained an enigma for more than a century, until Johns Hopkins University scientist Ken Livi examined the solids in the water samples, finding the causing.
bloody color
According to those responsible for the finding, recently reported in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, transmission electron microscopy determined that there were a large number of tiny spherical iron particles that, when oxidized, cause the water to change its bloody color.
Livi stressed that these nanospheres, which are 100 times smaller than a human red blood cell, had not been identified in previous investigations because they were believed to be some type of mineral, RT indicates.
However, he explained that, since they do not have a crystalline structure, these small particles cannot be considered as minerals, so the methods used in the past to “examine solids did not detect them.”
The phenomenon is caused by iron-rich nanospheres (Youtube).
This is because its atoms have to be arranged in specific ways throughout a crystal, says RT.
On the other hand, Livi explained that the ancient waters below the glacier, rich in iron and salt, preserve bacterial strains that have not changed in millions of years.
The expert stressed that the understanding of this inhospitable environment could also reveal information related to the existence of life on other planets, reports RT.
“With the advent of the Mars Rover missions, there was interest in trying to analyze the solids coming out of the Blood Falls waters as if it were a Martian landing site,” Livi said.
The nanospheres are 100 times smaller than a human red blood cell (Peter Rejcek).
However, he assured that the study carried out by the surface exploration vehicles has been “incomplete to determine the true nature of the environmental materials on the surfaces of the planets”, since they have been designed to detect materials in their crystalline form.
“To truly understand the nature of the surfaces of rocky planets, a transmission electron microscope would be necessary, but it is currently not feasible to place one on Mars,” he concluded.
GML
