Kerala Probe Ties 2001 Red Rain to 50,000 Kilograms of Trentepohlia Spores
Updated
Updated · Boing Boing · Jun 25
Kerala Probe Ties 2001 Red Rain to 50,000 Kilograms of Trentepohlia Spores
1 articles · Updated · Boing Boing · Jun 25
Summary
July-September 2001 downpours in Kerala carried about 9 million red particles per milliliter, with scientists estimating roughly 50,000 kilograms fell across the state.
A government investigation traced the color to airborne spores from Trentepohlia, a common green alga that appears bright orange and heavily coated trees, rocks and lamp posts in the region.
Yellow, green and black rain was also reported, but the red rain drew the most attention after it stained clothes pink and spread across southern Kerala.
Two Mahatma Gandhi University physicists later proposed a cometary panspermia theory, claiming a meteor delivered extraterrestrial cells, but those claims were never verified in peer-reviewed research.
Colored rain was not unique to 2001: Kerala also recorded similar events in 1896, 1957 and 2012.