Met Denmark Strait Cataract: The most voluminous waterfalls in the world

Niagara waterfall in northern part of America is 1/2000 times the Denmark Strait Cataract

When talking about waterfall, then our mind might have decided that the largest waterfall would be in Niagara waterfall. Well, it is apparently true when we think about the waterfall located on the surface. But, when thinking about in the Earth, unfortunately, the winner goes to another area. It is not above the ground, but under the water!

As it is of the name, the lake is located in Denmark. To be precise, the waterfall is located beneath the water which is positioned in the North Seas. The waterfall is also popular with scientific name called North Atlantic Circulation Pump or the Greenland Pump. The location of the waterfall is in the Denmark strait and it is formed by the differential temperature which separates the water mass in the western and eastern side of Denmark.

Due to the different temperatures, the densities also are influenced which creates the differences in the masses too. As a result, the downward flow is created and thus creating waterfall. So, the differences in temperatures create different densities, masses. Technically speaking, when hot water meets cold water, the sinking is happening and it occurs on the cold water.

Denmark Strait Cataract Underwater Waterfall

But, the formation of deep water will be occurred based on three aspects. They are Air-sea exchange; Ocean-sea exchange; Decent and entrainment [1]. Interestingly, many studies agreed that the Air-sea exchange and ocean-sea exchange are two main reasons the creation downward flow of undersea because they are directly connected to the atmosphere and the deep ocean volume. The exact thing also happens on the difference of temperature. So, how about the decent and entrainment? This factor contributes on the volume of water that will be transported. The resulting of water production is enormous.

According to the several websites related to the high of waterfall Denmark Strait Cataract which is classified as the North Atlantic Circulation Pump could fall for more than three thousand meters. However, the mind-blowing news is not about the height, but the amount of water that flows on this “pump”. And the amount of water which falls on this waterfall is estimated at 175 million cubic of feet of water for every second. In term of physical characteristics, the Denmark Strait Cataract is the highest and the largest waterfall on Earth because the height is more than three times than Angel Falls in New Zealand whereas flow rate of Niagara’s waterfall is very much smaller than it – Denmark Strait Cataract is equivalent to 2000 of Niagaras.

References
[1] J. F. Price and M. O. Baringer, "Outflows and deep water production by marginal seas," Progress in Oceanography, vol. 33, pp. 161-200, 1994.

[2] Niagara's image is downloaded from www.youtube.com

[3] The image of Denmark strait cataract underwater waterfall is downloaded from www.greenarea.me