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The Denmark Strait cataract is a submarine waterfall in the ocean channel in between Iceland and Greenland. It is technically the world’s biggest waterfallwith waters plunging 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) down a slope from the top of the cataract to its bottom.

The waterfall itself has to do with 6,600 feet(2,000 m)high, since it lands in a deep swimming pool of cold water that covers the rest of the slope. That’s still double the height of Angel Falls– the highest waterfall on land– even if the Denmark Strait cataract does not look as significant as the landmark in Venezuela.

Related: Blood Falls: Antarctica’s crimson waterfall created from an ancient surprise heart

The cataract is as broad as the Denmark Strait, approximately 300 miles(480 kilometers)throughout, and the seabed drops off over a length of 310 to 370 miles(500 to 600 km). “If we visualize it, it looks like a relatively low-gradient slope,” Mike Clareleader of marine geosystems at the U.K.’s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, formerly informed Live Science.

As an outcome, water gushing down the cataract moves at much slower speeds than those tape-recorded at other waterfalls– 1.6 feet per 2nd (0.5 meters per second)compared to 100 feet per 2nd(30.5 m/s) At Niagara Falls. “If you were down there, you probably wouldn’t notice a whole heap going on,” Clare stated.

Glaciers took the Denmark Strait cataract in between 17,500 and 11,500 years earlier, throughout the last glacial epochThe waterfall straddles the Arctic circle and funnels polar waters from the Greenland, Norwegian and Iceland seas into the Irminger Sea, an area of the North Atlantic that is essential for Atlantic-wide ocean flow

The waters north of the cataract have to do with 1,300 feet( 400 m)deep, however just the bottom 660 feet (200 m) waterfall down the slope. The leading half sits at the surface area and combines with water streaming northward through the strait. After leaving the Denmark Strait, the bottom half continues south along the seabed to the Antarctic, where it goes into a worldwide loop of ocean currents called the thermohaline blood circulation.

None of this shows up above the waves in the Denmark Strait. “At the surface, you have typical sunny Arctic conditions,” Anna Sanchez Vidala teacher of marine science at the University of Barcelona in Spain who led a research study exploration to the strait in 2023, formerly informed Live Science.

The waterfall isn’t noticeable from area either, she stated, other than through mapping signs, such as temperature level and salinity.

The Denmark Strait cataract isn’t the just recognized undersea waterfall, although other recorded waterfalls can’t take on it in size. There are functions called knickpoints that typically happen along continental margins that look a lot more like waterfalls on land, Clare stated, however these are little in contrast to the monstrous cataract.

Discover more amazing locationswhere we highlight the wonderful history and science behind a few of the most remarkable landscapes in the world.

Sascha is a U.K.-based student personnel author at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science interaction from Imperial College London. Her work has actually appeared in The Guardian and the health site Zoe. Composing, she delights in playing tennis, bread-making and searching pre-owned stores for concealed gems.

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