Antarctica's Blood Falls & Bleeding Glaciers Point to Alien Life? May Lead to Life in Mars

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Antarctica's Blood Falls could host adaptable microbial life similar to the alien life found outside of the planet and could help us understand how to cultivate life frozen under the surface of Mars.

The Blood Falls, according to its name, is ridden with iron oxide responsible for its color is found in McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica and is home to strange microbial lifeforms. According to Tech Times, this region is ice-free and the coldest and driest desert on Earth. This area could also hold alien life similar to other planets and could help scientists in knowing the extent of the damage done by global climate change.

The scientists were able to found a network of salty aquifer underneath the Antarctic valley. They believe that this could be the host to extreme microbes that may be similar to the lifeforms found on Mars or other planets.

"We found, as expected, that there was something sourcing Blood Falls," Jill Mikucki, lead researcher from University of Tennessee told Washington Post. "We found that these brines were more widespread than previously thought. They appear to connect these surface lakes that appear separated on the ground. That means there's the potential for a much more extensive subsurface ecosystem, which I'm pretty jazzed about."

The aquifer, according to Discovery News, is doubly salty as regular sea water and discovered more than 900 feet underground the Taylor Valley region. It spreads more than 10 miles from Ross Sea's McMurdo Sound to the eastern section of the valley. A second network was found and connects Taylor Glacier with Lake Bonney.

With Curiosity, NASA's Mars rover, scientists were able to discover that salty liquid water may exist in the planet earlier this month. The Red Planet was once believed to be abundant with water and it is still unknown how it came to be a cold and dry desert planet.

"The subsurface aquifers that we've been looking at in the (Antarctic) are potential analogs to understanding Mars systems," Mikucki told Discovery News. "We still have a lot to learn about these dry valley aquifer systems, but they appear to be related to climate changes."

Scientists want to know how organisms can adapt to living in one of the harshest regions on Earth. Learning how to detect signs of life in seemingly lifeless environments could greatly aid them in creating new ways of identifying alien life on Mars, Tech Times reports. They believe that the water's high salt content could prevent the waters from freezing which in turn permits life to exist. Scientists also believe that a similar process could be found on Mars.

The paper was published in Nature Communications last April 28.