Why is this Antarctic Glacier “Bleeding?” | Antarctic Extremes

Did you know that Antarctica has a glacier that bleeds red? (At least, that’s what it looks like.) Subscribe! Five stories high and emerging from the Taylor Glacier in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, Blood Falls seeps into an ice-covered body of water called Lake Bonney. It’s one of the continent’s most enigmatic natural features and has fascinated scientists for decades. What makes it red? Does it always flow? And can anything actually survive near it? To find out—and see just how bizarre Blood Falls is with their own eyes—Caitlin and Arlo travel to the Dry Valleys, about 60 miles from McMurdo Station. There, they meet with microbiologist Jill Mikucki and hydrogeologist Peter Doran to investigate why this glacier looks the way it does, what lives there (spoiler: CHARISMATIC MICROBES!), and what clues it holds for finding and understanding life on other planets and moons in our solar system, like Mars, Jupiter’s Europa, and Saturn’s Enceladus. Answering these questions, it turns out, requires lots of probes, cameras, and even a massive sensor hanging from a helicopter. Life Under the Ice photography Courtesy of Ariel Waldman. Produced with support of the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. For more images check out ***** PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: ***** Hosted by Caitlin Saks and Arlo Pérez Digital Producer/Editor: Emily Zendt Producer: Caitlin Saks Digital Associate Producer: Arlo Pérez Field Director/Cinematographer: Zachary Fink Executive Producer: Julia Cort Coordinating Producer: Elizabeth Benjes Project Director: Pamela Rosenstein Production Assistance: Matthew Buckley, Emily Pattison, Sean Cuddihy Director of Audience Development: Dante Graves Senior Digital Producer: Ari Daniel Audience Engagement Editor: Sukee Bennett Outreach Manager: Gina Varamo Special thanks to Michael Amundson Special thanks to the United States Antarctic Program Additional Footage: Ariel Waldman, Bill Dunford, Brad Herried, Brian Wilcox, Byron Adams, Brigham Young University, G. Neukum (Freie Universitaet, Berlin), Denys Grombacher, ESA, JPL-Caltech, Lars Jensen, NASA, Peter Doran, Polar Geospatial Center, Ricardo Garza-Giron, Robert Simmons, Space Science Institute, University of Arizona, USGS Music: APM National corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Draper. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the David H. Koch Fund for Science, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers. Additional funding is provided by the NOVA Science Trust. Major funding for this project is provided by the National Science Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, the George D. Smith Fund, and the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1713552. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. © WGBH Educational Foundation 2020