Case file · High strangeness
Blood Falls
In 1911 the Australian geologist Griffith Taylor, on Scott's expedition, found a blood-red stream pouring from the snout of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's dry valleys.
1911 CE · -77.72, 162.27 · status: explained
The account
Taylor first thought red algae coloured it. It became a favourite 'Antarctic mystery' image.
The sceptical view
Iron-rich, very salty water from a lake trapped under the glacier rusts when it meets the air; microbes live in it without light or oxygen.