5 things you didn’t know about waterfalls

Waterfalls are often judged by which are the tallest or have the largest volume of water, but there’s so much more about them to know. They can make cliffs, produce a dozen different kinds of ice, and have tiny fish crawling up them using suction cups.

1. Waterfalls can make the cliffs they fall from.

Which came first, the cliff or the waterfall? Watch this video to learn how some cliffs are formed by rivers eroding different layers of rock.

 
2. Niagra Falls could disappear into Lake Erie.

Erosion has caused Niagra Falls to move south about 7 miles (11 kilometers) over the past 12,000 years. It could disappear into Lake Erie in 23,000 years.

3. Waterfall ice climbers have names for more than a dozen kinds of ice.

If you’re climbing frozen waterfalls, it’s important to know what kinds of ice your working with, such as such as laminated flow, rotten pillar or cauliflowered.

4. Some fish in Hawaii have evolved to literally climb waterfalls.

Using suction cups on its body, the “inching climber” fish moves up the rock walls of waterfalls in order to reach its freshwater spawning grounds.

5. One of the world’s tallest man-made waterfalls is on a skyscraper in China.

The Liebian Building in Guiyang, China, has an unusual feature – a waterfall pouring out of the side of the building and dropping 108 meters (350 feet) to the ground.