4 Underwater Waterfalls in the World That You Never Knew About
Maya Pillai
People you read the title right, "Underwater Waterfalls." There are taller and mightier waterfalls under the ocean than the ones on the land.
A recent discovery revealed that Angel Falls in Venezuela is no longer the tallest waterfall in the world.
In fact, the underwater falls are more than 500 meters beneath the ocean surface.
Visiting these underwater falls are not so easy for a common man.
Denmark Strait Cataract
Located between Greenland and Iceland, this gigantic waterfall is 100 miles wide.
It is deep underwater waterfall as it plunges from the Greenland Sea into the Irminger Sea 11,500 feet below.
Denmark Strait Cataract carries with its 175 million cubic feet of water per second. That is it dwarfs all the giant waterfalls on the land.
Wondering how Denmark Strait underwater waterfall is formed?
Waters of the Greenland Sea is colder and denser. When it meets the warmer waters of the Irminger Sea, it slides underneath the warmer waters to the bottom of the ocean.
Once it reaches the ocean floor, it forms a massive current traveling south that replaces the warmer waters, that's flowing north to create the underwater waterfall.
Mauritius Underwater Waterfall Illusion
When you are in Mauritius next time, ensure that you add the underwater waterfall to your bucket-list.
You can hire a helicopter to see this mind-blowing natural wonders of the Indian ocean. From above you can see the water gushing in the middle of the sea.
This waterfall is formed when the underwater currents pull the sand and silt from the higher coastal shelf into the deeper levels of the sea.
The color of the water changes now and then rapidly when the sand and silt deposits flow into the sea.
The view from above shows that the whole scene appears like a huge waterfall being sucked into a deep deep drain. And it's a spectacular view.
Ceara Cataract
This underwater waterfall lies between the continents Africa and South America in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The water flow rate is between 1 and 2 million cubic meters per second.
Strait of Gibraltar Cataract
The underwater waterfall is formed here because of the salinity differences in Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Owing to significant evaporation in the Mediterranean Sea, the water is saltier compared to the Atlantic ocean.
This causes the water flowing out of the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar to sink into the Atlantic to form waterfalls.
Underwater water falls are formed because of the movement of water currents in the ocean, temperature of the waters as well as the salinity.
Underwater waterfalls play a vital role in maintaining the salinity, climate and marine life of the seas and oceans.