Thursday, March 4, 2010

Primordial Goo

That this is a five story high blood red waterfall oozing out of a glacier isn't even the strangest bit.

The strangest bit is what the blood red goo is made of.  It is an ancient community of microbes, sealed off from the rest of the world by ice for the last two million years.  "Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes existed without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of 'primordial ooze.'"  A high iron content is what lends it the blood red color.  That, or, you know, loathsome blood-devouring demons lurking under the crust of the Earth.  You make the call.

The gunk is coming out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica.  The photo, and the accompanying facts, are from my new favorite web site, Atlas Obscura.

8 comments:

Sabra said...

Sci fi loses the "fi" part -- Beware The Blob. It sneaks and creeps and crawls.

Sueann said...

It does remind me of the Blob!! That movie scared me to death!! That is really interesting. Great shot of the goo!!!
Hugs
SueAnn

Laurita said...

This is both "ew" and cool. What a great story this would make.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Definitely looks like blood devouring demons to me. Good call.


Scarlett & Viaggiatore

ArtSparker said...

Romeo is bleeding. I just attempted to email you, but it bounced back. The gist being, I will send you a set of Alice cards if you send me your address. My email is on my profile page.

Noel said...

It's....so weird. Like mother nature menstruating.

Clowncar said...

It really does look like the opening seconds of a monster movie, eh, Daisy?

SueAnn, I find the blood red color to be the scariest bit.

Laurita. Yeah, you're right. The science in particular is begging to be fictionalized - 17 never before seen microbes were in the goo. What is one went viral?

Hey, Scarlett. Fist thing that came to my mind was Lovecraft. Ancient 2 million year old evil and all that.

Thanks, Art! I emailed you back yesterday. And included some snarky comments about Tim Burton's Alice in the process.

Noel, I hadn't thoughta that. Nature red in tooth and claw.

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