fauna

Blood Falls, a Natural Time Capsule Containing a Unique Ecosystem

By Atlas Obscura

This five-story, blood-red “waterfall” pours ever so slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valley. Geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, and believed the red color came from algae. Its true nature turned out to be more spectacular.

Roughly two million years ago, a small body of water containing an ancient community of microbes was sealed beneath the surface of the Taylor Glacier. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, the microbes have remained isolated inside a natural time capsule, in a place with no light, oxygen, or heat.

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

More photos of Blood Falls can be seen on Atlas Obscura.

(via: Slate.com - Atlas Obscura)

Madrean Album Sky Islands

The Madrean Sky Island Archipelago is a 70,000-square-mile (180,000-square-kilometer) region of northwestern Mexico, southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The region is a blend of tropical and temperate climates and home to a biological diversity that exceeds any other region of the United States.

Sky Islands are a class of continental terrain made up from a sequence of alternating valleys and mountains ranges. All sky islands have a stack of biotic communities that allow for vertical migration but the vast valleys between them act as a barrier preventing species from crossing from one mountain range to another…

(read more: OurAmazingPlanet)

(photos: Credit: Paul Condon/A.J. Schneller/Segio Avila/Jenn Falcon/Sky Island Alliance)

watershedplus:

Lying just outside the Amazon Basin, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is subject to a regular rain season during the beginning of the year. The fresh water collects in the valleys between sand dunes creating lagoons for half of the year and almost completely disappear during the dry season.

Source 1, 2, 

Nine of the World’s Most breath-taking Canyons

by Brittany Johnson

Although there is only one that has been named as such, our planet is home to many grand canyons. From steep cliffs to narrow valleys, each evoke a sense of wonder and amazement while documenting thousands of years of geological history. Although each is unique in its own right, we have found nine canyons that are must-sees for any nature lover. But beware, if you have a fear of heights, you may feel uncomfortable just gazing at these pictures, as some of these grandiose layers of rock plummet to depths of close to 10,000 feet…

(read more: Sierra Club)

(photos - istockphoto: demerzel21, fernandoAH, JanRoode, clodio, lillisphotography)

Springtime in the Sonoran Desert

photos and text by Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher

For many, their vision of the Sonoran Desert, located in the southwest part of the United States and northern Mexico, is one of a vast and barren wasteland of rolling sand dunes and desolate landscapes. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the Sonoran Desert annually becomes a lush environment of amazing springtime color when the indigenous plants bloom after a winter of rain…

(read more: Our Amazing Planet)