Scientists at a research base in Antarctica woke up to a terrifying sight – the ice around them looked like it was covered in red blood, with streams of blood red flowing through the melting ice.
While this might have terrified a common person greatly, scientists were terrified even more. For they knew exactly what it was.
And it wasn’t good.
It looks like blood was spilled here, but what’s the real reason?
Vernadsky Research Base from Ukraine is set in Antarctica, and the scientists there were the first ones to spot this phenomenon. Although the real reason is definitely not a massacre or some bloodshed – it is far less dramatic. But the implications of this scene are horrid.
A Ukrainian scientist noticed it first and took pictures
Marine ecologist Andrey Zotov from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine took the pictures and posted on his Facebook profile.
Later, the team viewed the blood red ice under microscope and found that the red colour was caused by a red-pigmented algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis.
These algae are more alarming than blood
These algae are originally green, and they are found in all the icy and snowy parts of the world. These are usually hibernating during the winter, and they start to “bloom” as soon as they find heat. Their cells turn red to protect them from ultraviolet radiation.
Antarctica just recorded its hottest temperature ever in history
Scientists find this alarming because Antarctica just recorded its hottest temperature ever at 18.3 °C after nine days of heatwave.
This signals that Antarctica is finally warm enough for the blood-red algae to bloom, but it’s also terrifying because the algal blooms reduces the amount the white ice would reflect. It increases the amount of light ice absorbs and it begins to melt even faster.
This is eventually a vicious cycle. As more ice melts, more algae bloom red – and then they cause more melting by absorbing more light.
Probably the only positive thing about this incident is that the snow smells sweet like a watermelon, even though consuming this ice will kill humans due to the toxic nature of these algae.
Last week, NASA revealed that during the nine-day heatwave almost 25% of Antarctic island’s snow was melted and there were pools and melt ponds formed – the kind of which occur in Alaska and Greenland, but have never been seen in Antarctica before.
All Featured Images Courtesy: Vernadsky Research Base, Antarctica
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