crymson_vampyre ([info]crymson_vampyre) wrote in [info]wtf_nature,
2010-03-05 21:55:00
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The Glacier is Bleeding!

Ok...not bleeding, so much as leaking primordial ooze all over everything. Still, it's pretty cool, I think.

The story:
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." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.





Mmm...primordial
Tags: glacier

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  • 61 comments

[info]meuniere

March 8 2010, 03:08:02 UTC 2 years ago

oh god mother nature is on her period

that explains haiti and chile

[info]lydia_petze

March 8 2010, 03:08:45 UTC 2 years ago

I LOLed.

[info]angrytroll

2 years ago

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...and 12 more comments... from [info]scratchmeharder, [info]zero_bug, [info]china_kitty… Expand

[info]soberloki

March 8 2010, 03:11:52 UTC 2 years ago

Nature is so awesomely strange.

[info]desuringo

March 8 2010, 03:26:27 UTC 2 years ago

Awesome! that is so weird, but cool!

[info]willowistari

March 8 2010, 03:48:44 UTC 2 years ago

Wicked cool. :O

[info]madeofmeat

March 8 2010, 03:52:52 UTC 2 years ago

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT'S HOLY, MY ANUS IS BLEEEDIING!!!

[info]vaecrius

March 8 2010, 03:56:46 UTC 2 years ago

Win.

[info]co_cutthroat

March 8 2010, 06:30:20 UTC 2 years ago

Hey you! I didn't know you were here!

Also... GROOOSSSSS.

[info]madeofmeat

2 years ago

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[info]tilberios

March 8 2010, 04:04:17 UTC 2 years ago

The virgin snow ain't a virgin no more.

[info]meghers

March 8 2010, 05:02:43 UTC 2 years ago

lolololol

[info]akirashima

March 8 2010, 04:48:18 UTC 2 years ago

DELICIOUS! gimme a spoon!

[info]spencer_mato

March 8 2010, 05:06:12 UTC 2 years ago

Why do I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a plague that will wipe out humanity? Or possibly a sign that the elder gods will soon come over the mountains of madness and wipe out the human race?

[info]drbunsen

March 8 2010, 05:34:17 UTC 2 years ago

Yeeessss. An entire ecosystem of microbes which have followed their own evolutionary path for 2 million years. There's gotta be something in there that will fuck us up bigtime, and against which we (or for that matter, our food crops) will have no defense.

[info]niiku

2 years ago

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[info]ankewehner

2 years ago

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[info]end_of_the_mind

2 years ago

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[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]end_of_the_mind

2 years ago

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[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]sarmonster

2 years ago

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[info]owlsie

2 years ago

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[info]spencer_mato

2 years ago

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[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]ianam1983

2 years ago

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[info]gaiaeagle

2 years ago

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[info]wolfdancer

2 years ago

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[info]featherfire

March 8 2010, 08:02:29 UTC 2 years ago

Does it say something about me that my first thought upon seeing that was not "period" but "murder"?

Still, that's fascinating stuff.

[info]cameoflage

March 8 2010, 08:51:50 UTC 2 years ago

Yeah, that's what I thought too. But I already know I'm pretty morbid.

[info]owlsie

2 years ago

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[info]featherfire

2 years ago

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[info]alleykitten

2 years ago

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[info]killiara

March 8 2010, 08:56:11 UTC 2 years ago

That looks like it belongs in Silent Hill... o.O!!!

Keep it the FUCK away from me!

[info]mushroom_maiden

March 8 2010, 09:30:46 UTC 2 years ago

yikes. Is someone taking samples of that shit?! They'd better be!!!

[info]logansrogue

March 8 2010, 11:17:12 UTC 2 years ago

I think the Doctor would find that fuckin' AWESOME.

BLEEDING GLACIERS, man.

[info]cameoflage

March 8 2010, 18:22:04 UTC 2 years ago

Preach it!

[info]tamayoduck

March 8 2010, 14:39:41 UTC 2 years ago

Pretty awesome. I'm kind of bummed that this fascinating ecosystem will be lost though... there was a lot we could have learned from it.


However, maybe it's just me, but the level of evolution denialists on that website is ASTOUNDING. And frightening. You guys are afraid of this iron-rich bleeding of a glacier? People who want to your kids to learn that "god" is an equally valued idea for how life began IN SCHOOLS are the REAL sign of the coming apocalypse!

[info]end_of_the_mind

March 8 2010, 14:58:56 UTC 2 years ago

Tell me about it. I mean, religion is fine, but it goes in a religious studies class. I don't go to Sunday School at some pseudo-randomly designated neighborhood church and go, "WE CANT SEE GOD SO THERE IS NO GOD." It's just not appropriate. Why can't people understand that!?

But when the evolutionarily distinct oozy microbes get from the freaking pole to the real world, will people believe in evolution then? When it murders babies in their sleep and slashes tires in ways none have ever seen before? Hrm....

(And, because I couldn't find somewhere else to stick my MICROBEY IGNORANCE APOCALYPSE INCOMING icon, here 'tis xD)

[info]drbunsen

2 years ago

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[info]end_of_the_mind

2 years ago

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...and 2 more comments... from [info]green_turquoise, [info]ianam1983 Expand

[info]china_kitty

March 8 2010, 23:02:12 UTC 2 years ago

Holy moly! It does look like bleeding glaciers.

It's pretty amazing what microbes could do.

[info]alleykitten

March 12 2010, 03:55:44 UTC 2 years ago

Life.... found a way!

*cue music*

[info]ianam1983

April 18 2010, 01:47:07 UTC 2 years ago

Thank you for summing that up so nicely. (And referencing one of my favorite movies.) You win an Internet.

[info]assula

March 13 2010, 19:51:04 UTC 2 years ago

omg LCL?
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