Waterfall formation

hello everyone,

all of you have mentioned a lot about the course of the river but waterfall is still left out. So I will be writing on how a waterfall comes into existence and why do they disappear after many years.

Waterfall is an upper course landform of the river where flowing water suddenly drops over a steep region. They often start as rapids or a chain of smaller steps.

So what leads to the formation of a waterfall? Usually it happens where a hard rock lies next to a soft rock. As the river continues its journey over the hard rock, the softer rock below is eroded at a faster rate by the processes of abrasion and hydraulic action. This gives rise to a cave-like formation known as the plunge pool at the base of the waterfall.
As the erosion continues, the hard rock collapses in the plunge pool due to pressure. This further erodes the base of the waterfall by abrasion leaving behind a steep sided valley called gorge.

Although the charming waterfalls that are present today will prevail for a long time, but they will eventually disappear. The hard rock gets eroded and keeps falling into the plunge pool, this way the waterfall is actually moving backwards and after sometime there will be no waterfall. This is a very slow process similar to the speed at which it is formed.

-manish