Deadly waterfalls of the world..

Angel falls

Waterfall, a water body that gives a lot of adrenaline rush, I am always excited to visit such places, however scared I am of water at the back of my mind. Whenever visit any destination, Waterfall is the only spot i am super excited to visit. It’s adventurous. The sight of waterfall is very refreshing. I have visited may such places in India. Be it the Kempty falls in Mussorie or Jog falls in Karnataka over Sharavati River even the Umbrella falls in Bhandhardara and the beautiful Dhareshwar near Ganapatipule. The outings at the Dudhasagar in Goa and the Tiger falls at Lonavla are a habit. I have realised a few things about waterfalls. The more difficult is the location of the waterfall, the beautiful it isThe flow of waterfall is always unpredictable. The darker the sky, the wilder it will be. If you are not a confident swimmer, stay near the rocks and enjoy because the depth of the river or the pond created by a waterfall is beyond prophecy and can jeopardise your existence. Well yeah, experience has made me more confident about this fundas.The highest water waterfall is 335m in India. This is the Nohkalikai Falls located in Cherrapunji. One of the wettest places on earth. Do you want to know which is the highest in the world? Well guess??  Its 979 metres. Approximately 3212 ft. I am talking about the Angel falls in Venezuela. The waterfall was known for most of the twentieth century by the name "Angel Falls" after Jimmie Angel, a US aviator who was the first to fly over the falls in a plane.        The pictures depict the exhilarating view of the place. A lot of rock climbing is carried on here in summers. It’s a highest unobstructed drop on the surface of the earth.. The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyantepui mountain in the Canaima National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty. The base of the falls feeds into the Kerep River (alternatively known as the Río Gauya). It’s a major tourist attraction

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I told you about the highest, now let’s talk about the mightiest

Dettifoss: 

Dettifoss is a waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park in Northeast Iceland, and is reputed to be the most powerful and the mightiest of all waterfalls in Europe.It is situated on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, which flows from the Vatnajökull glacier and collects water from a large area in Northeast Iceland. The falls are 100 metres wide and have a drop of 45 metres down to the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is the largest waterfall in Europe in terms of volume discharge which is 193 m³/s (1 m³=1000litre). The route to be taken is a little nasty but the site is worth every effort

Dettifoss

Another famous from Iceland is the Gullfoss again for its voluptuous might. The name means golden falls. The falls are over Hvítá river. Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. About a kilometer above the falls it turns sharply to the left and flows down into a wide curved three-step "staircase" and then abruptly plunges in two stages (11 m and 21 m) into a crevice 32 m (105 ft) deep. The crevice, about 20 m (60 ft) wide, and 2.5 km in length, is at right angles to the flow of the river. The average amount of water running over this waterfall is 140 m³/s in the summertime and 80 m³/s in the wintertime. The highest flood measured was 2000 m³/s. As one first approaches the falls, the crevice is obscured from view, so that it appears that a mighty river simply vanishes into the earth.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

 Sutherland

Sutherland Falls named for Donald Sutherland, a prospector who found the falls in 1880.

Sutherland Falls

Aerial view of the three drops of Sutherland

Sutherland Falls is a high volume waterfall of three steps in very quick succession along the Arthur River, which spills from a pair of sizable lakes carved into glacial basins high on a mountainside in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park. The three drops of the falls stand 751 feet, 815 feet, and 338 feet tall respectively, occur in such quick succession that when viewed from the air the falls appear to be one long drop that impacts the bedrock in a few places.

 A waterfall can be ideally used for setting up a hydroelectric power station. But colonization may disrupt the flora and fauna of the region. As i write this article I remember the beautiful time we three had enjoyed at the Dhareshwar waterfall. Cold, Isolated, it is just nature and you. The best time to visit such places is early monsoon around July-mid August, although its the most dangerous also. That makes me realise that I am drfiting from the topic. The next waterfall I am going to describe about is well known for the natural beauty it endows.

Plitvice Falls

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia’s first national park is one of the most beautiful national parks in the world. UNESCO pearl Plitvice Lakes complex is a whole of beautiful forests, meadows, rocks and drop-down lake whose water countless cascades and waterfalls tumble and overflow through 16 beautiful stepwise, blue lake to the river Korana, which runs deep and rocky canyon in the karst, forming a special attraction for tourists. The park was inscribed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1979, in recognition of its "outstanding natural beauty and undisturbed production of travertine (a type of calcium carbonate deposit found in water surface) through chemical and biological action". The park represents a phenomenon of karst hydrography. Karst is a type of landscape, and also an aquifer type. Karst areas consist of solid but chemically soluble rock.

The water here is so clear that one can see fishes through it.

Plitvice Falls.

Yosemite Falls 

(yose-mit-ee)

Yosemite falls in Yosemite valley

Upper Yosemite

It is the highest measured waterfall in North America. Located in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California, it is a major attraction in the park, especially in late spring when the water flow is at its peak.

The total 2,425 feet (739 m) from the top of the upper falls to the base of the lower falls qualifies Yosemite Falls as the sixth highest waterfall in the world. It takes approximately 4 hours to drive to the park from San Francisco, approximately 6 hours from Los Angeles

There are two main categories of waterfall. One which get activated during monsoon due to the rainwater. The other is flowing throughout except winters as this is the one which are continuously flowing either due to glacial melting or by the rainwater.

The last two are well known 

Victoria Falls 

The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Cloud that Thunders; note that the 'i' is silent) is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first European to view the Victoria Falls — which he did from what is now known as 'Livingstone Island' in Zambia, the only land accessible in the middle of the fallsWhile it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is claimed to be the largest. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 metres (5,604 ft) and height of 108 metres (354 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world.

Iguazu falls

The time I have discovered about this falls I have decided to visit them. I expect this trip by next monsoon. But yes this one is absolutely exemplary and beautiful.Iguazu waterfalls are located on the Iguazu River on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River flows through Brazil for most of its course and forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentina.The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani or Tupi words  meaning "water", and ûasú [meaning "big.

Igauazu from Brazil 

Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.. Numerous islands along the 2.7-kilometre edge divide the falls into numerous separate waterfalls and cataracts, The number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the flow of water. About half of the river's flow falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devil's Throat (The Devil's Throat is U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide, and 700-meter-long

Iguazu from Argentina

The Iguazu Falls are arranged in a way that seems a reverse J. The border between Brazil and Argentina runs through the Devil's Throat. On the right bank is the Brazilian territory, which has just over 20% of the jumps of these falls, and the left side jumps are Argentines, which make up almost 80% of the falls. The Argentinean side has wider views of the falls. On the Brazilian side there is a walkway along the canyon with an extension to the lower base of the Devil's Throat and helicopter rides offering aerial views of the falls are available. Argentina has prohibited such helicopter tours because of the environmental impact on the flora and fauna of the falls.

Devil's Throat

There are a lot many of this beautiful entities on the face of earth. Lets explore....

I will be back with some more interesting stories..'

Cheers!!!

Asmi