Antarctic Glacier Has Five-story Blood-red Waterfall of Primordial Ooze

[Ian David]

Antarctic Glacier Has Five-story Blood-red Waterfall of Primordial Ooze

There is a five-story, blood-red waterfall pouring slowly from the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley. Its back story, at Atlas Obscura, is simply remarkable:

Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.


One takeaway here is that life possible in extreme conditions. That said, in the absence of ideal conditions, life can evolve without begetting plants or birds or cuddly mammals or sentient beings who write blogs on the internet; it just begets a glob of ooze.



More:
http://www.good.is/post/science-rules-antarctic-glacier-has-five-story-blood-red-waterfall-of-primodial-ooze/?GT1=48001

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/snipeyhead/status/10187432851

[slackmaster]

1. I wonder if Primordial Ooze would fix split ends

[MineralMan]

11. Nah. That's a hopeless case. Shave it and start over.

:hide:

[mdmc]

2. very interesting find my friend..

[Robb]

3. Simply amazing.

Thanks for posting this.

[atomic-fly]

4. wow

I was just reading about this subject. A scientist combined cyanide and ammonia and froze it for 25 years
and it produced building blocks for life. This opens the possibility that life is created in many more
places than we imagined.
The more I read lately, the more I think the universe is bursting with life!

If the glaciers melt we might release some kind of TOXIC BLOB!

[CanonRay]

5. Imagine if an airborne strain that we had no defense for

got out of one of these lakes. Whoopie we're all gonna die.

[slackmaster]

7. I suspect those bacteria die quickly when they enter the ocean

But you never know.

[MUAD_DIB]

8. NUKE IT NOW!

[reggie the dog]

14. LMAO

[GodlessBiker]

9. The Andromeda Strain?

[NobleCynic]

12. Somehow I doubt that thesse bacteria are equipped to survive

in any other environment. The probably die on exposure to air or sea water. I'd be more worried about the antibiotic resistant monstrosities we're creating all on our own.

[Oregone]

6. I hope this will be better than the movie The Thaw

Horrible movie. If people get eaten alive from this, I hope the onsight camera work is better and the screams more authentic

[eShirl]

10. I will never complain about having my period again.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Just Imagine the PMS!

[hootinholler]

15. The talibornagain is all over that

It's a sign of the apocalypse!

-Hoot

[jgraz]

16. Teabaggers Abandon Palin, back Red Glob of Ooze in 2012.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. I'm sure it has a higher I. Q.

;)

[ThoughtCriminal]

18. It is a good thing...

that Gamera is a friend to all children,

[jdp349]

19. Is that the same thing responsible for all those deaths in Downingtown, PA

from way back in the 50s?

It escaped in the 80's for a remake, hopefully Hollywood makes it stay put this time...

[Ian David]

20. First comes the blood, and then come the boys!

[JoeyT]

21. Clearly there's only one solution to this problem.

Package it and sell it as a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuff">dessert.