Signs and Portents: Water Turning Red As Blood

It has been noted that the scriptures sometimes employ the imagery of blood-red waters to convey divine judgment or dire consequences, such as the Nile turning red (Exodus 7:17-18) or an angel pouring out a vessel into water and turning it to blood prior to the Second Coming (Revelation 16:4). Thus it is interesting to see news reports of blood red water flowing into the Persian Gulf from the Island of Hormuz, which is controlled by Iran. Ironically, as Tehran perishes for want of water, heavy rains are washing water heavily tinged with hematite into the sea at the southern end of Iran. 

    Hormuz Island is not the only place in the Middle East which has seen water turn red in recent months.

    In August, the biblical Sea of Galilee in Israel mysteriously turned a vivid blood red, leaving locals rattled and warning of a 'bad omen.'

    Israel's environmental ministry confirmed that the transformation was caused by a bloom of green algae in the freshwater lake, which turns red when a natural pigment builds up under intense sunlight.   

I don't really believe that the whole argument over whether a phenomena is natural or supernatural is all that helpful. The supernatural aspect is often in the prediction and/or timing of a natural event. The miraculous nature of the destruction of Sodom (a bronze age city) wasn't whether it was destroyed by a meteor's airburst (a natural cause) or God's giant laser cannon (a supernatural or artificial cause), but that Sodom was in the particular locale that was destroyed and a warning was given to certain inhabitants only a short time before it happened.