Waterfalls, Revised Edition

Patricia Corrigan

Description

From Venezuela's Angel Falls, Earth's highest, to Victoria Falls, “the smoke that thunders,” here is an outstanding survey of the world's top 10 waterfalls. Detailing locations, sources, size, volume, and appearance, Waterfalls, Revised Edition includes material about each waterfall's geologic makeup, history, local climate, and people. This eBook includes intriguing facts on other notable waterfalls, such as California's 400-foot Whiskeytown Falls, which was only discovered in 2005.

Sujets

• Science de la Terre
• Science
• Nature
• Volume
• Water
• Global
• Climate
• Geology
• Environment
• Waterfall
• Sciences et techniques
• Young Adult Nonfiction
• Earth Sicences

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438182520
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Waterfalls, Revised Edition
Copyright © 2019 by Patricia Corrigan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:
Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001
ISBN 978-1-4381-8252-0
You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.infobase.com
Contents Chapters Waterfalls Angel Falls Victoria Falls Yosemite Falls Gavarnie Falls Niagara Falls Kahiwa Falls Igua u Falls Multnomah Falls Jog Falls Cumberland Falls Support Materials Glossary Index
Chapters
Waterfalls

Water falls. Simply put, that is why waterfalls are part of the landscape all over the globe. Gravity is the short answer to the question of why rivers and streams large and small plunge over cliffs, drop to the ground, and then hurry away to connect with the next body of water. The result is one of the most dramatic spectacles of nature.
Waterfalls bring tourists to every area of the globe from Australia to Zimbabwe. Millions of hikers, climbers, kayakers, and nature lovers flock to waterfalls far and near to stand and gape at the sight of streams rushing over cliffs, to hear the roar of the water, and to delight in the spray. Though chemists insist there is nothing to the popular theory that all those vaporized water molecules are naturally intoxicating, most people remain captivated by the sight, sound, and spray of something wild.
The impact is strongest, of course, in the presence of the most powerful waterfalls, but all waterfalls serve as both artists and engineers of the planet. "Water is the driving force of all nature," wrote Leonardo da Vinci, an artist and engineer who lived in Italy from 1452 to 1519. The formation and structure of waterfalls makes for an interesting story.
How Waterfalls Form
Waterfalls occur when the flow of a river or stream is abruptly interrupted. Unable to halt at the edge of a cliff or on the side of a mountain, the water plunges down the face of the rock. Glaciers—rivers of ice—are responsible for some waterfalls. In prehistoric times, these vast ice rivers gouged out large valleys in mountainous areas, sculpting the land. Yosemite National Park is an example of a glacial valley. Glaciers sometimes formed smaller valleys, called hanging valleys, above the large ones. When the ice retreated, tributaries flowing high in the mountains had to drop twice as far to rejoin the river. Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite National Park is a hanging valley waterfall.
Movement deep in the Earth is another cause of waterfalls. When the land shifts, either gradually over thousands of years or abruptly one afternoon, a mountain may either partly collapse or rise up, interrupting a river's flow in the process. Millions of years ago, as a result of movement beneath the crust of the Earth, the peninsula now known as India tilted to the east. Rivers that had previously run east changed direction to flow west, and those bodies of water followed faults and fractures that resulted from the uplifting of the land. Jog Falls, one of many waterfalls in the Western Ghats in southern India, was formed just this way.
All waterfalls, by their nature, are temporary, though as with most changes in the land, alterations take a long time. At the brink, or edge, of each waterfall is cap rock, a layer of hard, erosion-resistant rock. Over time the flowing water removes softer layers of rock just under the cap rock. This type of erosion is called an undercut. Part of the cap rock, which is more resistant to erosion, eventually weakens and falls to the base of the waterfall. These crushed boulders are called talus. Each time the edge of the cap rock shatters, the waterfall recedes upstream, and the slope, or grade, of the rock that supports the waterfall lessens slightly. Over millions of years, the slope dwindles and starts to level out, and the waterfall becomes a simple rapid.
Some scientists predict that eventually Niagara Falls will travel all the way back upstream to Lake Erie and function simply as a rapid. Even rapids change the land. Every body of water carries rocks and rock particles along the path of its channel, and in turn, those particles change each path. Slammed together by the force of the water along the way, these particles, known as sediment, bond and form sedimentary rocks. These rocks and other debris carried by the water cause the land to wear away, or erode, and over time erosion may lead to the formation of yet another waterfall.
Waterfalls and Rivers
Many waterfalls occur on young rivers, those rivers in the biggest hurry to reach the sea. A river may exhibit two or more different phases along its course—perhaps having the appearance of an old river at the mouth and a younger river elsewhere. In either case, references to age in regard to rivers refer to a phase of development, not to chronological age. Most waterfalls, including Gavarnie Falls in the Pyrenees Mountains of France, occur in the upper regions of rivers, often located in hills or mountains.
As water hurries along the riverbed, the shape and direction of the channel changes according to the volume of water, or discharge, at that place. The fastest streams, those that twist and churn, are said to be in the youthful phase of the river, a time when the flow is concentrated and the stream has few tributaries. These rivers are often characterized by rapids and waterfalls, as shown in the illustration.

Rivers characterized by rapids and waterfalls have an ungraded profile, while rivers smoothed out by erosion have a graded profile.
Source: Infobase Learning.
Rivers are said to be in early maturity when erosion has reduced the grade of the riverbed. The flow slows as the slope decreases, and the slower the flow, the less sediment it can carry.
Older rivers, made shallower still by a buildup of sediment, have a wider flow. The oldest rivers have broad, flat channels, and their flow proceeds at a pace befitting an elder. That said, even older rivers can pick up speed along the route and reach the ocean sooner rather than later. The Zambezi River has all the characteristics of an older river until it approaches Victoria Falls, located on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. There the Zambezi speeds up and sends a huge volume of water racing over the falls.
The Water Cycle
Some waterfalls depend on copious amounts of rain. Others are fed by massive amounts of melting snow. When the snow melts or the rainy season arrives, the water seeks a route over, under, around, or through rock, exerting pressure until the water bursts free. Hours of hard rain, day after day, month after month, add up to enough water to form a significant fall. Angel Falls in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world, is one such significant fall. The volume of water is reduced at all waterfalls—even the mighty Angel Falls—in those areas that experience a dry season.
Much of the year, waterfalls have access to a continuing source of water due to the water cycle, a process in nature that keeps water flowing on our planet. As illustrated in the accompanying image, the water cycle works like this: Most rivers go to the sea that is closest by the most direct route. Small bodies of water everywhere drain into larger bodies of water, gathering force at each confluence and eventually flowing into the ocean. The heat of the sun turns water from the oceans into vapor by the process of evaporation. The wind carries the vapor back to the land. When the temperature drops, the vapor condenses. This condensed vapor forms droplets that become clouds, and then drops form that fall as rain. Depending on the condition of the soil, rain either sinks into the ground or flows along the surface. Rainwater falls into flowing streams and rivers and moves with the bodies of water once again to the sea. Then the cycle repeats itself.

The major processes that drive the water cycle, or hydrological cycle, include evaporation, transpiration, and precipitation.
Source: Infobase Learning.
Waterfalls and Power Plants
Power plants (also known as power stations) are the massive buildings that house the equipment used to produce electricity from water. Power plants often are constructed at the site of large waterfalls. For instance, two power stations, one in the United States and one in Canada, are located just below Niagara Falls. Dams, like the one in the photograph below, are built near power plants to provide reservoirs where water is stored. The water is then channeled into long pipes that run from the reservoir to the power station. The force of the water turns the wheels that activate turbines or engines, and the turbines generate electricity known as hydroelectric power.

Dams control the flow of water so that power plants may convert the water into electricity.
Source: James M. Phelps Jr. Shutterstock.
Harnessing the power of water is not a new concept. In ancient Greece, water powered gristmills, mills that ground grain into flour. As early as 610, the Japanese had devised ways to make water do work. The first modern hydroelectric power plant was built in 1882 in Appleton, Wisconsin. By 1900, hydroelectric power was used to meet 60 percent of America's power needs. In 2016, 16.4% percent of the world's electricity was generated by hydroelectric power plants.
A Waterfall is Discovered on Frozen Antarctica
On April 19, 2017, scientists reported the results of the first-ever hydrological survey of Antarctica in the journal Nature . Studying aerial and satellite photography along with notes from early explorers, they were surprised to find that the frozen continent has an active meltwater drainage system comprised of nearly 700 streams, ponds, and waterfalls. One of the most spectacular pieces of ev