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| Urami Waterfall by Kobayashi Kiyochika |
Rivers flow over strata of rock that vary in resistance to erosion. As rapid river flow scours a channel into a less erosion-resistant stratum below, it transports loose material downstream thus increasing the slope of the watercourse.
As the flowing water carries the softer rock downstream, the riverbed becomes steeper. Gradually the slope increases to the point where rapids become a waterfall.
As a plunge pool develops, turbulence and whirlpools in the water undercuts the soft rock.
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| Illustration by Jerry Crimson Mann |
“When I was walking in the mountains with the Japanese man and began to hear the water, he said, 'What is the sound of the waterfall?' 'Silence,' he finally told me.”
― Jack Gilbert, Collected Poems
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| Selandjafoss, Iceland by Martin Meeks |
Man is not himself only...He is all that he sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources...He is the land, the lift of its mountain lines, the reach of its valleys.
― Mary Hunter Austin
REFERENCES
- How Waterfalls Work, John Fuller, How Stuff Works.
- Plunge Pool, Wikipedia.
- The Classic Works of Mary Hunter Austin, Mary Hunter Austin
- Waterfall, Wikipedia.
