
The largest confirmed waterfall in Earth's history - Tomte
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170601-the-largest-waterfall-that-ever-existed
======
candiodari
I don't know if this was the largest. Both the mediterranean and the Black
sea, each a lot larger than any water body in America.

Anyway, both of those were dry at one point and the water of the oceans broke
through. The Black sea went from low lying valley (akin to the dead sea
valley, but much bigger) to open sea in less than a week.

I don't know, but that even seems to me must have been pretty spectacular (to
watch from a SAFE distance).

~~~
mcv
That was exactly what I thought about when I read the title. It may have been
a very temporary waterfall, but it must have been enormous.

So does the Black Sea waterfall not count because it was so temporary? Was it
still somehow smaller than the one from the article? Or has its size not yet
been verified?

~~~
johnlbevan2
I think there's a definition of waterfall that includes a longevity
requirement; i.e. as there are some "waterfalls" which only exist shortly
after rainfall, then dry up again, and thus can't be called waterfalls. I'll
try to dig up a reference for that half-recalled fact...

~~~
johnlbevan2
A very wordy, non-scientific defintion here: [http://www.world-of-
waterfalls.com/featured-articles-waterfa...](http://www.world-of-
waterfalls.com/featured-articles-waterfalls-101-what-makes-a-waterfall-a-
waterfall.html#3)

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xrd
This flood carried the Willamette meteorite, a 15 ton space rock, embedded in
a chunk of a glacier, from Montana to just south of Portland. It is the
largest meteorite found in North America.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite)

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wiredfool
The article doesn't really emphasize that glacial Lake Missoula filled and
drained multiple times over the years. In the Missoula valley, there are
multiple historical beach areas on the mountain sides as a horizontal topo
feature. Each one is at a slightly different height.

I have a book in storage on this (helpfully titled "Glacial Lake Missoula") --
The craziest statistic that I can remember is that the calculated outflow
through one of the canyon choke points was a mile wide, hundreds of feet deep,
and travelled at 60mph. There are scars from passing icebergs on the walls.

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hourislate
Randall Carlson along with Graham Hancock speak of this in quite some detail
on Joe Rogans podcast. They speculate that some sort of meteor or comet shower
melted the icecaps 12k years ago and caused a flood of biblical proportions.
It is a fascinating podcast.

[http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/graham-hancock-
randall...](http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/graham-hancock-randall-
carlson-2)

~~~
arethuza
We've been having glacial periods fairly regularly for the last couple of
million years - not sure why you need to introduce a meteor shower to explain
the icecap melting:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_period)

~~~
avenoir
Science in general is very split on the Missoula flood theory and from my
reading about the event it seems that this is mainly because Geology has moved
on from Catastrophism to Uniformitarianism which doesn't really explain the
event very well. Bretz who spent most of his career studying the region and
originally introduced the theory of the Missoula flood suggested that there
was only a single, catastrophic flood, but he eventually ended up settling for
a possibility of multiple floods just to get his theory accepted after
fighting with the Geological community for years and eventually moving away on
to other work. He eventually received many high-ranking accolades for his
work, but to his last day he was convinced that the flooding was a single
event of very rapid melting of the glacial ice. Carlson sides with Bretz and
suggests that there is compelling evidence that the flood itself lasted days
not years. Honestly, this entire debate paints a very bad picture of modern
Geology disregarding evidence because it challenges the status quo.

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tdy721
This is really neat, but I'm slightly miffed that they didn't include an image
of the giant ripple marks. I watched a PBS Documentary (Nova?) about this area
that went into great detail. I might be mixing some things up...

More info for fellow Geo-Nerds:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_current_ripples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_current_ripples)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMbsGHVzXRU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMbsGHVzXRU)

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/)

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theprop
Niagara Falls is at something like half its potential power. There are talks
to open the floodgates so to speak once a year and let Niagara Falls be really
gigantic (bigger than Iguaza) one day a year.

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wallflower
This immediately reminded me of the Lake Peigneur disaster.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI)

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curun1r
> It was twice as high and three times as wide as Niagara Falls

Having seen both, I'm not sure that doubling and tripling Niagara would make
it larger than Iguazu Falls...probably taller, but Iguazu is really, really
wide.

~~~
lentil_soup
Same in height when compared to the Angel Falls which are 980m high[1] vs 51m
for the Niagara Falls.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Falls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Falls)

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dredmorbius
A simulation of the Lake Missoula flooding and ice-dam collapse:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=27BP4CL66Tk](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=27BP4CL66Tk)

Eastern Washington's Scablands are pretty impressive relics.

~~~
jonah
There's a pretty interesting natural rock dam[1] that holds Garibaldi Lake[2]
in. It's just a loose pile of rocks and has the potential of collapse[3] which
would release the entire lake down the valley.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barrier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barrier)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_Lake)

[3] "The area below and adjacent to the Barrier, a geological feature
upholding Garibaldi Lake is considered hazardous. Although imminent danger is
unlikely, special regulations are in effect to make you aware of the potential
danger and to minimize the risk to life and property in the event of a
landslide. Posted signs identify the Civil Defence Zone. Do not camp, stop or
linger while traveling through the zone. Camping or remaining overnight at or
near the Garibaldi Lake parking lot is prohibited. Developed campgrounds are
located nearby at Alice Lake and Nairn Falls Provincial Parks." \-
[http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/garibaldi/](http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/garibaldi/)

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gerdesj
"We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our
international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run
commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the
profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new
BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital
activities at www.bbcworldwide.com."

 _sigh_

~~~
clort
I also get this, is it because they have adverts on the page and the BBC is
somehow not allowed to show adverts in the UK?

I wonder what actually prevents them just showing the page without adverts to
UK readers, rather than showing the placeholder; I'm supposing that its for
political reasons as in, they _wont_ show it, rather than _cant_

~~~
dTal
It's political. Note that BBC Good Food is in exactly the same scenario,
legally. Yet it's fully accessible in the UK.

~~~
detaro
As far as I know, BBC Good Food doesn't belong to the BBC, it just licenses
the name.

~~~
dTal
"This website is made by BBC Worldwide.

BBC Worldwide is a commercial company that is owned by the BBC (and just the
BBC). No money from the licence fee was used to create this page. The profits
we make from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC
programmes."

[https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/)

C'mon man, it's right there on the front page...

