Scientist Harry Coumnas has finally solved the century old mystery about blood falls. They are a famous red waterfall in Antarctica founded in 1911. They are famous for the release of iron rich salty waters that turn red when iron comes in contact with the air. Harry has provided new evidences which link the blood falls to a large source of salty water that has been trapped under Taylor Glacier for more than one million years. Harry tracked the water fall with radio echo sounding radar – one to transmit electrical pulses and another to receive.
During an interview, Harry Coumnas said “We moved the antenna around the glacier in grid pattern in order to see what was underneath the ice. We used a bat like echolocation to see things around it.”
Harry Coumnas made another significant discovery that liquid water can persist inside an extremely cold glacier. In his research work, he has explained how the freezing process takes place and water flows in cold glacier. According to him, water releases heat when it freezes and that heat warms the surrounding cold ice. The heat and the lower freezing temperature of salty water make liquid movement possible. In support of his research, he gives example of the Taylor Glacier, which is the coldest known glacier with constantly flowing water. The glacier also contains an ancient community of algae and microbes that have been kept isolated for roughly two million years.
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