Did you think that the world’s largest waterfall is the Angel Falls in Venezuela or the Niagara  Falls in Canada? Wrong ! The Earth’s largest waterfall is a large cataract beneath the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. Dropping nearly 11,500 feet, this underwater waterfall is more than three times larger than the Angel Falls which is at 3,212 feet.

What is a cataract? It is the name we use to call a large powerful waterfall. Look at the picture below (taken from the book “Invitation to Oceanography” by Paul R. Pinet), the cataract is in the Atlantic ocean waters and falls off the high point in Denmark Strait on the right, falling into the North Atlantic Basin.

Quite a fall we must say ! Unfortunately underwater falls do not look as spectacular as some of the large frothy falls we see above the Earth’s surface :) See if you have been to any of these Great Falls, pictures below – (Left) Angel Falls in Venezuela (Middle) Niagara Falls in Canada (Right) Jog Falls in India.

These large curtains of water are amazing aren’t they?