Blood Falls in Antarctica & Life Calls on Europa

In Antarctica, a vivid red stains the landscape like a gaping wound in a Snow Queen's breast. The scarlet stain seeps and pours down the glacier lending at a gruesome quality...



The red stain is the result of iron and salt precipitate slowly escaping from an isolated lake that was created during the Pliocene Epoch, up to an incredible 5 million years ago.

Within this lake are microbial lifeforms that exist without anything we assume to be the necessities of life. It's essentially a time capsule of strange life that can be compared to the our early primordial oceans.

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."

Blood Falls

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bae51767bfd1.gif[/atsimg]



The outlet for this blood red water is just right to allow water to leave without any outside influences in. It keeps the ecosystem inside the lake in splendid isolation. We can't yet explore this mysterious lake without destroying the environment within. Any probe will need to be 100% clean of life...bacteria etc.

These toughass little critters lend hope to the dreams of discovering life on other worlds. Worlds like Jupiter's Europa (Oceans of Europa: Will the Solar Systems' 1st Extraterrestrial Life be Found There? ) and the current favourite Saturn's Enceladus. Both of these moons are believed to have oceans beneath their icy surfaces. Enceladus has been imaged spewing water into the solar wind...



Jets On Saturn's Moon Enceladus Not Geysers From Underground Ocean, One Group Of Researchers Say... the jury is still out on the geysers, but there's consensus about the oceans.

Our extremophiles in their small alien world beneath the polar ice, may well be part of a larger family that spans three worlds or more...How we begin to explore these 'time-capsules' may ultimately determine how we'll explore the speculative oceans of Europa.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/44d98122ea12.jpg[/atsimg] source

If i was looking for life in our solar system id check the seas of europa. Who knows what lurks in the deep.

Oh yes S&F

Our own planet has proven our arrogance wrong so often.

We should accept we don't know and except what we deny.

First thought, "Holy Antarctica after-birth Batman!" My second was how much more omminious looking can you get? Imagine a deadly virus, let loose due to global warming?

S&F
Nice! It's good to see something different for a change. And something I never heard of before no less.

Also as stated by Sinter Klaas, it just goes to show that science doesn't know everything about our planet yet.

Originally posted by Ikema
First thought, "Holy Antarctica after-birth Batman!" My second was how much more omminious looking can you get? Imagine a deadly virus, let loose due to global warming?

When I seen the first image I thought this was gonna be about the slaughtering of seals.
A pleasant surprise.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas
Explore and then explore some more is the way forward

A guy called Bill Stone is leading the way forward here. He's been testing a submersible in the waters that Bleeding Falls runs into. His ultimate aim is to explore the oceans of Europa...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ef33a26c4f3e.jpg[/atsimg]

News: NASA Approves ENDURANCE Upgrade Funding for 2009 Antarctica Field Season

This is the Endurance...not life size

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6c58bdb7094a.jpg[/atsimg]

This video sets out his plans to set up a moon base in Shackleton Crater. From there...he hopes to launch a probe to search for life in the Europa oceans. I love his ambition and playing 'Born to be Wild' over an animation of extraterrestrial exploration is magic....

This is the most genuinely creepy post I have ever seen on ATS. What if those microbes are descendants of the "fossil organisms" that supposedly arrived from Mars on a meteorite?

Fascinating story, I caught this earlier in a newspaper and was hoping someone would post it, nice one mate.

I find the idea of this sealed environment really intriguing, 2 million years is a damn long time. 2 things:

Do you think it's at all possible that in those 2 million years various other forms of life has evolved? EDIT to add what I mean is, some kind of weird and wonderful life form!!

Secondly, I wonder if there's anything nasty in there (microbes/viruses etc) that could possibly survive outside of their sealed environment and damage our ecosystem when released.

Nice thread bud, S=F!





[edit on 7-3-2010 by kiwifoot]

Kandinsky, it's your fault I will get no sleep tonight! The blood falls are truly in need of more study by the experts, and more research tonight by me.

Thank-you for the post! A s&f for making me think!

reply to post by Kandinsky


Maybe this is the same as that red blood rain in India:

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by kiwifoot
Hiya Kiwi and thanks for the kind words...

Do you think it's at all possible that in those 2 million years various other forms of life has evolved? EDIT to add what I mean is, some kind of weird and wonderful life form!!

Secondly, I wonder if there's anything nasty in there (microbes/viruses etc) that could possibly survive outside of their sealed environment and damage our ecosystem when released.

From what I've read, the environment is likely fairly static. Life should be limited to very basic organisms....bacteria etc. There shouldn't be enough ecology to develop complex organisms. That's the science talking. It's more fun to envisage silent predators gliding through the oily black confines in search of prey....bio-luminescent lures writhing around long, sharp teeth.

I assume that no viruses or infectious bacteria could relate to us. The outflow isn't new and the first image shows a tent in the vicinity of the Blood Falls. The area has been studied since 1912...some short years before the 1918 Flu pandemic

Just joking...still, we won't know until we're able to get in there and take samples without polluting the eco-system. For all the popular criticisms of science, many do have respect for nature and hold it in great regard.

If a pharamcorp thought a possible cure for something could be found down there...I guess we'd be pulling on wetsuits and grabbing ice-picks and dynamite.

EDIT to add I was mistaken about the image with a tent. It's one I didn't upload. Here's one that provides a better example...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0bcf8e2ef915.jpg[/atsimg]

The X-Files could have written a two-parter for this location...

[edit on 7-3-2010 by Kandinsky]

If there is any Truth to Omens, then this is F@!#ing proof *creepy*

[edit on 7/3/2010 by Pakd-on-mystery]

Originally posted by Kandinsky

From what I've read, the environment is likely fairly static. Life should be limited to very basic organisms....bacteria etc. There shouldn't be enough ecology to develop complex organisms. That's the science talking. It's more fun to envisage silent predators gliding through the oily black confines in search of prey....bio-luminescent lures writhing around long, sharp teeth.

I assume that no viruses or infectious bacteria could relate to us. The outflow isn't new and the first image shows a tent in the vicinity of the Blood Falls. The area has been studied since 1912...some short years before the 1918 Flu pandemic

Just joking...still, we won't know until we're able to get in there and take samples without polluting the eco-system. For all the popular criticisms of science, many do have respect for nature and hold it in great regard.

If a pharamcorp thought a possible cure for something could be found down there...I guess we'd be pulling on wetsuits and grabbing ice-picks and dynamite.

Yep I guess you're right, going from the run down of the environment in the diagram it does sound pretty inhospitable! Although you never know........

I hope big pharma doesn't get their claws into it, but we know they will, then they'll find a miracle cure for everything......well I don't want to steer your thread off topic!!!

I'd give my right arm to be able to see that in real life, thanks for sharing !



[edit on 7-3-2010 by kiwifoot]

I think the medical community is already interested in these organisms. They want to identify what makes them so hardy and see if they can use it to create medicines. I don't know about the antarctic ones, but they are interested in the halophytes. The Chinese used them for centruries. Maybe big pharma will catch up.

2 million year old primordial soup of bacteria?? I would definitely drink some.

The potentials of this are unimaginable. I deffiently think slow and easy is the best approach on this tho for any group.

On a side note.. Isn't there something about the waters of the world turning red and being undrinkable in the end times?

Peace.

I believe this maybe linked to the hollow earth stories and theories
Yet we claim to know so much about earth from books, but never have truthfully full explored it, and now we want to travel to space? lets say we finish things on earth first.

I dont know what pharma corps have in mind but
im sure tampax could make alot of money here.
sorry!

Awesome post!

Thanks for bringing something most us would never have known about!

sandf!

reply to post by Ikema been my thoughts for years now! There could be something that we never have been exposed to and it may kill us all.