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Why do many wide waterfalls have a horseshoe shape?

by Anonymous

I've noticed that the rim of many wide powerful waterfalls seem to have a horseshoe shape across their widths. Why is that?

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Why do many wide waterfalls have a horseshoe shape?

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Dec 12, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		Good Question and Answer!
by: Anonymous

Good Question and Answer! It's something that I have been wondering about as well and now I know. I think your answer is pretty well precise. And like you said, a good example is Niagara Falls (Horse-Shoe Section). Good answer! It all makes sense now!!!
Dec 12, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		Very Interesting Question!
by: World of Waterfalls

This is a very interesting question because come to think of it, this seems to be a pretty common characteristic of wide powerful waterfalls.

Off the top of my head, some examples of this are the Horseshoe Falls section of Niagara Falls, the Devil's Throat section of Iguazu Falls, and even some of Iceland's waterfalls like Selfoss and Godafoss exhibit this property.

OK so given that context, let's look into why this is the case...

Even though I'm no expert in fluid dynamics, I do believe that water rubbing against water allows water to retain its velocity more and thus move pretty fast if it was already moving fast to begin with. But if you have water rubbing against a rough object or obstruction (like a river bank or an island in the middle of the stream), then the water moves a bit slower near these rough objects than water that's far away from them.

So given this idea, you can imagine that water in the middle of a fast-moving river moves the fastest while the water moves slower near the river banks.

And if this river plunged in a waterfall, the faster water tends to erode the underlying bedrock faster than the slower moving water. Therefore, the bedrock beneath the middle of this waterfall recedes faster than the edges. And given enough time, you'll eventually end up with a horseshoe shape as a result of this disparity in the rate of erosion of the underlying bedrock.

I drew some pictures to illustrate this point.

Niagara Falls and the Maid of the Mist

I'm sure someone who knows more about fluid dynamics or the behavior of water might give a more precise answer than I'm giving. If you're out there and happen to chance upon this question, please add to this discussion and help set me straight!

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