How Can A Waterfall Be Formed?

A waterfall is a natural formation which is formed when a water body such as a river breaks the rocks underneath it and causes them to erode. The erosion will then break the elevation of the river causing the river to fall from a height. The elevation keeps breaking as the years go by which makes the waterfall. Ultimately, the soft rock collapses and only the hard rock remains causing the water to fall from a height. There are many different types of waterfalls and all depends upon the flow of the current and the type of the river. Some of the types of waterfalls are block, cascade, tiered, horsetail, plunge and many more.

Waterfalls are usually found in mountain regions or places where the elevation is quite high such as hills, plains etc. Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall at more than 3000 feet.

Waterfalls are formed by erosional processes- Hydraulic, corrasion and attrition action. Waterfalls form where rivers meet a less resistant rock, after flowing over more resistant rock. The hard rock eventually collapses into the plunge pool at the bottom and the soft rock is eroded back.

Waterfalls are formed due to the erosive activity of the watercourse, flowing over varied layers of rocks that have different rates of erosion. Let's discuss about two consequences of erosion; a watercourse traversing over a soft rock layer will have higher rate of erosion, in comparison to another area with a hard rock layer. Over a period of time, the erosion process further continues to erode the soft rocks, resulting in the steepening of the watercourse beyond the layer of hard rocks.

In such a condition, the soil erosion rate is also accelerated due to steepening effect and increased speed of the watercourse. Eventually, the steepness of the watercourse increases and a stage comes in which the slope becomes almost vertical and/or totally vertical, leading to the formation of waterfalls. The base where the waterfall lands, is called a plunge pool.