When you purchase through links on our site , we may take in an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
Even our tallest buildings ca n’t match the staggering size of the human beings ’s most iconic waterfalls , which include Niagara Falls on the U.S. border to Canada , Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia and Angel Falls in Venezuela .
But which of these is the cosmos ’s largest waterfall ?
Angel Falls in Venezuela may be the tallest waterfall on land, but it’s not the tallest in the world.
Angel Falls is the tall waterfall on terra firma , measure 3,212 feet ( 979 beat ) high and 500 feet ( 150 m ) wide of the mark at the base , which is similar in size to three Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other .
But technically , Angel Falls is not the biggest falls on Earth . That honor goes to the Denmark Strait cataract , a plunging piss multitude in the Denmark Strait — an sea channel between Greenland and Iceland — think of the world ’s biggest , tall falls are submersed .
This is potential because of the temperature and salinity gradients that business leader most ocean current , allot toAnna Sanchez Vidal , a professor of marine skill at the University of Barcelona in Spain . The Denmark Strait range the Arctic Circle and acts as a funnel for polar waters flowing from the Nordic seas into the Atlantic Ocean . But like elsewhere in the ocean , the amnionic fluid in this area are n’t homogeneous .
Angel Falls in Venezuela may be the tallest waterfall on land, but it’s not the tallest in the world.
Related : What ’s the largest desert in the world ?
North of the Denmark Strait , surface waters that total into contact with the glacial Arctic air coolheaded and become saltier as some of the water freeze , go the salt to be rivet in the nonfrozen portion . Cold , salty water is denser than warm water system and therefore drop down to the seabed , while the balmier level rises to the surface . This telephone exchange fuels a deep , icy current flux southerly through the strait and into the Irminger Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean .
Of course , waterfall always sport a cliff or precipice , and the Denmark Strait is no exception . An 11,500 foot ( 3,500 m ) drop - off in the seafloor near the southerly lead of Greenland was carve out by glacier between 17,500 and 11,500 year ago , duringthe last ice historic period . Bottom waters course southerly through the strait hit the edge of this drop cloth and spill down its slope , work a cascade that dive beneath the warmer surface water supply of the Irminger Sea .
In the Denmark Strait, southward-flowing frigid water from the Nordic Seas meets warmer water from the Irminger Sea. The cold, dense water quickly sinks below the warmer water and flows over the huge drop in the ocean floor, creating a downward flow estimated over 123 million cubic feet per second.
The waters north of the waterfall , which scientist call the Denmark Strait cataract or brim over , are around 1,300 pes ( 400 m ) cryptic , Sanchez Vidal , wholed a research despatch to the straitin July and August 2023 , distinguish Live Science . Only the bottom 660 feet ( 200 one thousand ) shower down the slope , she said , while the rest sits at the Earth’s surface and commixture with warmer waters flowing northward through the straits . " Half of the H2O column is overflowing , but one-half is not , " she aver .
Although the sea bottom drops by 11,500 feet , the overflow itself is small-scale — around 6,600 feet ( 2,000 m ) improbable , or double the height of Angel Falls — because it lands in a deep consortium of cold , dim water . The overflow is impressive , but it does n’t appear anything like a waterfall on land , saidMike Clare , leader of maritime geosystems at the U.K. ’s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton .
For one , the overflow is as wide as the Denmark Strait , which means it stretches across 300 miles ( 480 kilometers ) of seabed . " It ’s probably dropping about 2,000 time vertically down into the depth of the Atlantic Ocean but over quite a big distance of something like 500 to 600 kilometre [ 310 to 370 miles ] , " Clare secernate Live Science . " If we visualize it , it wait like a relatively low - gradient slope . "
A map of Iceland showing the Denmark Strait.
Related : How much does a swarm weigh ?
As a outcome , the water streaming down the runoff reaches speeds of only around 1.6 feet per second ( 0.5 meter per second ) — much slower than walking hurrying and a far cry from the velocity recorded at Niagara Falls , where water plunge downat 68 mph(109 km / h ) , or 100 feet per second ( 30.5 m / s ) .
" If you were down there , you probably would n’t notice a whole heap survive on , " Clare said .
The same goes for above the waves , where there are no sign that discover the underwater cascade , Sanchez Vidal said . " At the surface , you have distinctive sunny Arctic condition , " she said , and " you could not see anything from space " except through mathematical function indicators , such as temperature and salinity .
But looking at are deceiving . moth-eaten amniotic fluid glide through the Denmark Strait are part of a life-sustaining system of sea currents know as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation ( AMOC ) , which carry lovesome water north and cold water south in a long loop within the Atlantic Ocean . After cold pee exits the Denmark Strait , it continues its journey south to the Antarctic , then warms up and rises to the aerofoil in a unconscious process called upwelling before returning northerly to discharge the cycle in the Arctic .
The AMOC channel much more than water molecules , Clare said . Its cold , bottom electric current inject oxygen , food and organic matter into the sea depths , bring home the bacon food for thought for a rich raiment of deep - sea life . The Denmark Strait overflow posture at the base of this life - supporting organisation — so , while " visually it does n’t look that impressive , realistically it is a hugely impressive characteristic in terminus of the persona it bet in the spheric sea , " he articulate .
— How much water is in Earth ’s crust ?
— What ’s the big ocean that ever existed on Earth ?
— Which is the largest continent ? The smallest ?
Unfortunately , the overflow is under terror fromclimate change , Sanchez Vidal say . Melting chicken feed cap and warming oceans are pumping fresh water into the organisation and slowing the AMOC , which scientists say isinching closer to a tipping point in time . Should the AMOC cranch to a halt , the Denmark Strait overflow " will minify in density and it will arrest , " she said .
The Denmark Strait overflow is n’t the only know underwater cascade . In fact , there are features on the seafloor called knickpoints that appear a lot more like falls on dry land , Clare said . Knickpoints often come on continental margin , where water flux transporting deposit carve out sub canyons .
" They ’re actually much quicker than the menses we see in the Denmark Strait , " he said , " and at the bottom , we do get feature a minute like plunge pools that you get in waterfalls . "
Plants : Facts about our oxygen providers
Satellite subject reveals the fastest sink metropolis in the US
What ’s hiding under Antarctica ’s ice ?
