Blood red lake in Iraq (pictures) what could this be?

For some odd reason in Google Earth you can find a lake in Iraq appearing to be blood red. Anyone have an idea what this could be?







I took these pictures as screen captures, but the location can be found at 33.39845000,44.48416800. I hope someone can figure this one out.



[edit on 2-9-2008 by Quarantine]

Maybe its red algae?

en.wikipedia.org...

Just my guess.

there is a suggestion here that it is in fact blood dumped from a local avatar into the local canal. it would sit for quite a while in a canal and could be contained between locks, makes sence to me.

reply to post by Quarantine


Sometimes salt ponds turn red. They are collections of sea water left to dry out and the salt residues can be several inches deep, if they are repeatedly flooded with saltwater and dried. Usually there's a salt mountain nearby.

Probably would be good to query google about it, if that's possible.

Originally posted by angrysniper
Maybe its red algae?

en.wikipedia.org...

Just my guess.

Thanks for the link, I didn't realize this was already a popular subject. It would still be neat to talk to someone in the military who has visited the location.

Are Iraqis into turkey and cranberry sauce? Maybe its a cranberry farm

Well here in Maryland occasionally you get something called red tide.
en.wikipedia.org...
The water turns that color and smell pretty bad for about a week.Pretty common event and can happen in lakes and ponds as well.

Oops never mind I can see Quarantine already posted about it...sorry.

[edit on 9/2/2008 by CaptGizmo]

That could also been a concentration of red colored sediment of billions of dead, red skinned Artemia Salina, or brine shrimps.

Artemias have pigmented micro-organisms encapsulated in their tiny bodies which are at the most just 1 cm long.
They have thin dark red colored shells, and those shells appear red when killed during evaporation from brine, of last remains of water out of sunlit shallow salty ponds.



They can breed explosively in the right circumstances and the water then appears to "wriggle".
In water that contains less than 80% salt, artemias will breed through eggs, but in saltier water they breed viviparous.

Their eggs are so strongly protected against drying up, that they hold their potential for life in years of drought, but will germinate as soon as the rain inundates the dried up salt flats again.

Flocks of flamingos feeding in shallow brine lakes where these organisms occur in the billions, will develop beautiful pink and red colored feathers.

Artemia is used in private and zoo's seawater aquariums to feed the inhabitants, since their tiny dried eggs can be frozen for a very long period in the freezer. These preserved eggs will develop in a few days to massive amounts of living Artemia when dissolved in fresh seawater.

In salt winning flats, operating by evaporation of shallow seawater, artemias do play an important role in the precipitation of gypsum from the seawater in the shallow salt flats.


Some links with funny and interesting info:

Sea-monkeys:
www.sea-monkeys.com...

Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp:
people.westminstercollege.edu...

A tad bit more scientific explanation, and as you should know, these creatures have been used by NASA and the Russian space program to determine the effects of ultraviolet radiation on living cells in space:
seagrant.gso.uri.edu...

Edit:
I wouldn't be surprised if those concentrations of lighter red dots at the north west corner of that lake, and down south of that land-tongue are in fact migrating flamingos feasting on artemias :



In that case, no stars needed for bloodthirsty ideas or dreams.


[edit on 2/9/08 by LaBTop]

the red sea?

could be spilt dyes, could also be a cock up from google, Labtop's answer sounded the most likley though.

maybe its a lake of red cordial?

I've heard stories about Google editing bogus objects into their maps, I don't know if there's any truth to it. Seems to be they would have nothing to gain.

I've heard there's whole blood-red estuaries in iraq due to severe ecological damage done during various projects during the reign of Saddam Hussein. bodies of water drying out and becoming too salty for normal organisms. I think it's either the algae or the brine shrimp that actually make it red.

This isnt the first aerial pictures I have seen like this

There is a website that has satellite pictures of weather and natural phenomenen, cant remember what its called.....but it has many pictures with descriptions. My guess is that its an algal bloom

It could very well be red algae or the blood of victims of foul play (I guess), but it could also be an iron oxide called hematite because of its blood red color. It is found in soil globally and, when mixed with water, creates a brilliant color like that of the lake pictured, and in fact has been used for centuries as a dye.

JUst a guess...

Maybe some type of mineral....like iron oxide.


In Australia we have iron oxide that can be blood red.

A lake of Blood where Saddam enforced his ways on the people who could not escape his barbaric laws and were executed for the slightest difference in opinion.

reply to post by The time lord


LOL WUT

Saddam was kind of a dick, and he did have a lot of civilians killed, both domestically and in foreign war crimes, but he certainly wasn't the kind of guy who fills lakes with the blood of dissenters for the fun of it.

He probably buried his victims in mass graves, they have been dug up and exposed, maybe more to be found. The nation was under fear, every wrong move or every wrong opinion was a death sentence by Saddam and his government. I just think the picture makes good symbolism for the blood spilt in his country.