How does Niagara falls work?

Question

Does anyone know where the water comes from and where the falls drain to? Is it possible for the falls to ever stop falling?

Answer 1

The water flows from northern central US and southern Canada into the Great Lakes system. The Great Lakes system flows through the lakes and the St. Lawerence river into the Atlantic Ocean. It would take a very large drought in the US/Canada area to stop the water.

Although there was a time that there was a large log jam or something upstream from the falls and the water temporarily stopped. I don't have any details on this. I'm not sure if it was a man made dam or a natural blockage.

The falls are constantly eroding. As time goes by, the two falls (Horseshoe and Niagara) will meet upstream and form one fall but that is a long way into the future.

Answer 2

I'll field this one.

I live right by it! Last year, I got the change to actually take a boat in the rapids. It was amazing, but I got soaked, and the water was freezing cold (which I guess is why they call it the "Wet Jet Tour"). I know that the falls get the water from Lake Ontario and it dumps into Lake Erie. They, as well as Huron, Michigan, and Superior are known as the great lakes, and are one of the largest sources of fresh water in the world. Lake Ontario gets its water (most of it) from the St. Lawrence River. Lake Ontairo drains into Lake Erie through the Niagara River (and yes, the falls). Can the falls stop falling? Of course! You could dam it up, but this would be difficult. You could redirect the water somewhere else. You could even dry up the lake (heh, good luck there). But there are several ways to make the falls stop falling. however, people want to keep it around. It's an amazing site, and it's all natural! (By the way, it's eroding I think one inch per year, so it keeps on getting bigger and wider).

Check this link for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls

And if you get a chance to Google Earth this, do it! it's a amazing view! Good luck! :)


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Actually, after some thought, I stand corrected. I had it backwards. The water flows from Erie to Ontario, and into the St. Lawrence where it's carried to the ocean. In order to stop the falls, you could dry up Erie (that's gonna be a hard task, especially since you'd have to dry up each body of water preceeding it). If you dam the water, the water may take other paths to flow.

Answer 3

Oh yeah !

There is a Big Water pump that makes the whole waterfall work. The day they turn off the pump, the waterfall will stop !

OK, giving you the benefit of the doubt of you being a kid - the correct answer would be, that It is mainly when a river flowing from land to sea meets a steep drop a water fall is formed usual. The same principle applies to Niagara falls. As long as the water flows - which might be that way for many more years to come unless a drastic climatic change occurs - the niagra would remain as it is - beautiful and majestic !

Answer 4

Others have answered, but I'll add a bit. First, Bren from RIT (Rensselaer Tech) got the flow backwards. It flows from Lake Erie downstream to Lake Ontario.

The five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario) were formed by the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. They drain into the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence River. (West and south of the Great Lakes, water drains into the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, thence to the Gulf of Mexico.)

Lake Superior, the largest and most remote of the lakes, is about 600 feet above sea level, so water has to descend that far to reach the ocean. There are rapids in the St. Mary's River connecting Superior to Lakes Huron and Michigan, about 25 feet lower than Superior. The Soo Locks at Sault Sainte Marie enable ships to rise or lower through that passage.

Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie are all at about the same elevation. Niagara Falls lowers the water level about 225 feet down to the level of Lake Ontario. The Welland Ship Canal permits ships to bypass the Falls.

Finally, a long series of rapids in the St. Lawrence River above Montreal gets the water the remaining 250 feet down to sea level. The St. Lawrence Seaway project enables ships to navigate up and down the St. Lawrence.

The reason Niagara Falls is where it is, is due to the long "Niagara Escarpment" -- a dividing line that runs roughly perpendicular to the water channel. On one side (the upstream side) of the escarpment, the rock is hard, and erosion-resistant. On the downstream side, it is softer and more easily eroded. Over thousands of years, the powerful Niagara River has dug a channel in the softer side, but the upstream side has resisted that. The result is the Falls itself.

Erosion keeps on doing its thing. Several years ago several tons of large rocks broke off the top and crashed to the bottom of the Falls. As a result, the Falls retreated upstream a short distance. And that process will continue.

Right now, the Great Lakes contain the largest volume of liquid fresh water in the world (excluding the polar ice caps). But the Lakes are quite young, geologically speaking, and geologists say they won't last long (in geological time, that is).

But for now, Niagara Falls is trying to keep the Lakes intact. If that hard rock on the top side of the escarpment were to erode away, the Lakes would just drain off -- unless we built a big dam, of course.

Hope this explains it.

P.S. One other related item -- the Erie Canal (now the N.Y. State Barge Canal). Early in the 19th century, the young United States was growing rapidly, but was mostly confined to the Atlantic Seaboard. Getting inland was a big problem, mostly because of the Appalachian Mountains. The Hudson River, though, was navigable as far as Albany, and from there, the Mohawk River Valley stretched out toward the west.

In 1825, the Erie Canal was completed, enabling barges and flatboats to travel all the way from New York City to Lake Erie near Buffalo. That opened up the Great Lakes region (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois) to new settlers (pioneers) and also established NYC as the leading metropolis in the country.

The Canal was a great engineering feat, because, with a series of locks, the flatboats had to be raised virtually from sea level to that of Lake Erie -- a 600-foot incline.

The heyday of the Canal was pretty short, because it was soon eclipsed by the New York Central railroad, which followed the same route. But while it lasted, the Canal was an important part of the westward migration of young America.

Answer 5

The water comes from Lake Erie and goes into Lake Ontario. Tens of thousands of years from now, the falls area will have eroded, and it'll be more like a river than falls. For water to stop moving here, it'd have to stop raining over a big portion of the North American continent.

Answer 6

You know i was wondering it myself. Though niagara is a lake. the water falls from one lake to another. but just wondering how much water can a lake hold. Its amazing

Answer 7

Water melts at the polar caps and works its way down.Congratulations you just put me over the 1000 points mark!

Answer 8

Lake Erie and Lake Ontario
i don't know

Answer 9

gravity :P

j/k