Blood Falls (Taylor Glacier)

ASPA 172

Antarctica · Antarctica (McMurdo Dry Valleys)

Antarctica (McMurdo Dry Valleys)Declared in 200418 km²

A subglacial spring of water reddened by iron oxide, flowing continuously from beneath the ice for more than a million years

Area

18 km²

Declared in

2004

Region

Antarctica (McMurdo Dry Valleys)

Best time

November to March

Plan your visit

Best time: November to March
Area: 18 km²

Highlight

A subglacial spring of water reddened by iron oxide, flowing continuously from beneath the ice for more than a million years

Designated an ASPA in 2004, it protects Blood Falls, a subglacial spring emerging from the snout of the Taylor Glacier in a striking deep red caused by dissolved iron oxidising on contact with the air, after being trapped and cut off from atmospheric oxygen beneath the ice for more than a million years. The water holds a unique extremophile microbial ecosystem that has evolved in complete darkness, with neither oxygen nor sunlight, drawing energy exclusively from chemical reactions with iron and sulphur, an internationally cited case study in the limiting conditions under which life can survive, with direct implications for the search for microbial life beneath the ice of moons such as Europa.