Jordan authorities investigate after pool of water near the Dead Sea turns blood red

Reason the pool of water turned red remains unexplained, but experts have a number of theories

File image: Officials from Jordan point out that the pond where the water turned red is isolated from the waters of the Dead Sea and small in size (AFP via Getty Images)

A small water body near the Dead Sea in Jordan has turned blood red in colour, baffling locals and authorities alike.

Pictures shared by several social media users showed the deep red-coloured pool of water, even as the cause of this phenomenon remains unexplained.

Jordan’s water ministry dispatched technical teams on Saturday to take samples and run tests to check what could have caused the change in the water’s colour, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post.

The result of this examination is expected to be released in the coming days, it said.

One user compared the red colouration of the water body to the Biblical “plague of blood”, but experts pointed to several potential biochemical and man-made causes.

The change in colour could have been caused by algae, iron oxide or even the addition of substances by humans that turned the water red, Sakhr Al-Nusour, the head of the Jordanian Geologists Syndicate, told Jordan’s Al Ghad newspaper.

Ministry officials pointed out that the pond where the water turned red was isolated from the waters of the Dead Sea and small in size.

This is the second such instance in two years of a water body turning red in the region. The Alexander River in Israel turned red in May last year due to blood flowing from adjoining slaughterhouses, according to the Society for the Protection of Nature.