A glacier in Italy is turning bright pink…
And it is bad news…
There is currently quite an impressive bloom of snow algae, turning the snow PINK at the Presena glacier in northern Italy.
While watermelon snow is fairly common in the Alps in spring and summer, it has been more marked this year.
Algae bloom
Scientists believe this weird phenomenon is due to algae named Chlamydomonas nivalis.
This spring and summer have seen low snowfall and high atmospheric temperatures, thus creating the perfect environment for the algae to bloom.
Algae turns ice pink in Italian Alps, accelerating loss of glaciers.
— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 6, 2020
Normally ice reflects about 80% of the sun's radiation back into the atmosphere, but the algae darkens the ice causing it to absorb the heat and melt more quicklyhttps://t.co/r4YoEgMqar
? Miguel Medina pic.twitter.com/HR5ffI17wa
Bad news
Algal blooms are bad news for the health of the glacier as darker snow absorbs more energy, meaning it melts faster.
The phenomenon has been particularly common this year.
Beginning of 2020, snow turned blood red in Antarctica:
An even GREEN in May 2020:
Same in Greenland back in 2018:
But sometimes, the pink coloration is due to natural disaster such as wildfires (New Zealand) or Sahara dust storm (Russia)
This strange pink snow phenomenon is increasing around the world… and that’s really bad news for our glaciers! More natural phenomena on Strange Sounds and Steve Quayle. Now if you are looking for supplements to increase your healthy lifestyle and sexlife please visit Natural Health Source. [CNN]
