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The Ancient Waterfall That Was Five Times the Size of Niagara Falls
Created from a catastrophic flood
Niagara Falls is famous for its size and for the amount of water that pours over it every day. It is one of the most visited sites in North America, and for good reason. But far away from the hustle and bustle of common tourist attractions stands a geological monument that tells a breathtaking tale.
Located in Central Washington, Dry Falls is a large cliff face that stands over a small lake. At first glance, the cliffs do not seem all that remarkable. The American West is filled with such features. But if you take a look with a geologist’s eye you will see something incredible. Dry Falls was once a waterfall similar in composition to Niagara Falls but much, much larger.
The thing that gives Niagara Falls its shape is the way that water flows. Water typically flows faster in the center of a river than at the edges. This means that erosion happens more quickly near the center of the water, leading to a horseshoe shape as the water erodes the middle faster than the edges. You can see that the same thing occurred at Dry Falls but on a much larger scale.
Gazing at Dry Falls allows you to gaze into the distant past and see something that unfolded during one of Earth’s most recent periods of geologic tumult.
The Size of Dry Falls
When water was flowing over these falls, they would have been five times wider than Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is roughly 3,000 feet from end to end. By comparison, Dry Falls is 3.5 miles wide. At the base of the cliff face today, there are ancient plunge pools where torrents of water poured over the cliffs and pounded the ground, creating large holes. Looking at the dry plunge pools today, it is hard to imagine what kinds of forces created them.
These holes sit 400 feet below the rim of the cliffs. While Dry Falls certainly is not the tallest waterfall in the world, the fact that it is over twice the height of Niagara Falls is impressive. The thunderous sound of these falls working at full tilt must…
