Crimson Cascade

on December 8, 2024

Featured in Answers Magazine

In the frigid land of ice and rock at the bottom of the globe lies a strange, otherworldly sight. A 50-foot waterfall, known as Blood Falls, cascades near Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound, striking a stark contrast of red on white.

The water from Blood Falls comes from a buried water reservoir that’s too salty to freeze. Lying over 1,300 feet (400 m) beneath Taylor glacier, the water was likely capped and sealed during the post-flood ice age. The lake itself is probably a leftover from the hot, salty waters that “burst forth” during the global flood (Genesis 7:11). The concentration of salt and the pressure from beneath the glacier allow a continuous stream of red water to flow despite the sub-zero temperatures.

This crimson cascade offers a majestic reminder of God’s global flood of judgment.

For years, scientists and researchers assumed that algae in the subglacial lake was the reason behind the red. Recently, researchers identified extremely small spheres in the water, so small that standard microscopes miss them. The mineral content in the nanometer-size spheres—made up of iron, silica, calcium, aluminum, sodium, and other elements—gives the water its bloody appearance.

As Tennyson said, the earth is “red in tooth and claw”—and sometimes, in waterfalls. This crimson cascade offers a majestic reminder of God’s global flood of judgment—but also of the blood of Christ who died to one day redeem our fallen world.