#devil's throat

@ghoultober day 10: Radiation

Iguazu Falls/Iguaçu Falls

The photograph says it all. Iguazu falls, one of the most beautiful sights that can be seen on our magnificent planet. A waterfall so beautiful that during her first visit, Eleanor Roosevelt said, ”Poor Niagara.”

Taller and wider than Niagara Falls, this amazing waterfall (categorized as a “cataract”) is located in South America, on the border between Argentina and Brazil. Most of the Iguazu river flows through Brazil but majority of the falls occurs in Argentina. The Iguazu falls consists of more than 275 individual waterfalls along a 2.7 km stretch. The height of each waterfall ranges from 60 to 82 metres. The longest drop occurs at an interestingly named location called the Devil’s Throat where about half of the river’s volume flows.

Formation of this natural masterpiece began with the eruption of basaltic lava over a 100 million years ago which gave rise to a number of spillways (caused by the natural flow of molten lava). More recently, (±20 000 years ago) 3 of them became filled with water from the Iguazu river through cracks and faults created by tectonic activity. Those 3 spillways which shaped the Iguazu falls differ drastically in height due to sandstone layers that were deposited in-between lava flows, which created the spectacular variation in the size of each waterfall.

By Ren