Waterfalls of the world

Known forThe highest uninterrupted drop on earth

The highest uninterrupted waterfall on earth, 979 m, off Auyán-tepui in Venezuela.

Settingfalls

For the examHighest waterfall. Tugela in South Africa is second.

Known forThe waterfall a border runs through

A 30 m tiered fall on the Quây Sơn river directly on the China–Vietnam border, so it is administered jointly — one of very few waterfalls a boundary runs through. The two countries agreed shared tourism management in 2023.

Settingtiered karst fall · 30 m · border

Known forThe greatest flow of any waterfall on earth

Seven cataracts over 100 km on the Congo, dropping only 61 m in total but carrying the greatest average flow of any waterfall on earth — about 17,000 cubic metres a second. They are why the upper Congo is unreachable from the sea and why Kisangani exists.

Settingcataract series · 61 m over 100 km · equatorial

For the examVolume, not height — the distinction the stem uses. Rapids on African rivers where they leave the plateau are why the continent's interior was reached late.

Known forEurope's most powerful waterfall

The most powerful waterfall in Europe by average flow, carrying grey glacial meltwater from Vatnajökull over a 44 m basalt lip.

Settingglacial meltwater fall · 44 m · basalt

Known forA 771 m fall the world only learned of in 2005

A 771 m two-tier fall on the eastern Andean slope, unknown outside its own valley until 2005 — a reminder of how recently large physical features were still being catalogued.

Settingcloud-forest fall · 771 m in two tiers · eastern Andes

Known forThe fall cut by glacial outburst floods

A two-stage fall on the glacier-fed Hvítá, dropping into a deep canyon cut by catastrophic glacial outburst floods — jökulhlaups — rather than by the river's ordinary flow.

Settingglacial river fall · two stages · basalt canyon

For the examJökulhlaup: a sudden flood released when a volcano melts an ice cap from beneath. It is an Icelandic hazard term now used worldwide.

Known forChina's largest fall, in the world's great karst

China's largest waterfall, 77 m high on the Baishui river in the Guizhou karst — the largest continuous area of tower karst in the world, where limestone has been dissolved into isolated peaks and caves.

Settingkarst fall · 77 m · limestone

For the examSouth China karst is the type region for tower karst and a World Heritage site. The same rock produces the falls, the caves and the sinkholes.

Known forTwo hundred and seventy-five drops in a horseshoe

275 drops at the Argentina–Brazil border, just above the Paraná confluence and the Itaipu dam.

Settingfalls

Known forThe world's largest untapped hydro potential

A 96 m series of rapids on the lower Congo, the largest concentration of hydroelectric potential in the world. The proposed Grand Inga scheme would be the largest power project ever built; two smaller stations exist and run far below capacity.

Settingcataract series · 96 m · very high flow

Known forThe most powerful single-drop fall of its height

A single drop of 226 m on the Potaro river in the Guiana Highlands — about four times the height of Niagara and, by volume at that height, among the most powerful single-drop falls in the world. It falls off the edge of a sandstone plateau.

Settingplateau-edge fall · single drop 226 m · rainforest

Known forThe barrier that closed the Mekong to shipping

The widest waterfall in the world at about 10 km across, on the Mekong at the Cambodian border. It is the reason the Mekong was never a navigable route from the sea into China, and the barrier that keeps the Irrawaddy dolphin population above it isolated.

Settingwide cataract · 21 m · Mekong mainstream

For the examWidest, not highest. French colonial attempts to bypass it by railway failed, which is why the Mekong never became a trade artery.

Known forThe whole Nile through a seven-metre gap

The Nile forced through a gap only about seven metres wide and dropped 43 m — the most concentrated flow of any waterfall, because the whole Victoria Nile passes through a slot in the rock.

Settingslot fall · 43 m · Nile mainstream

Known forThe falls that retreat eleven kilometres upstream

On the Niagara river between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario — the US–Canada border runs through it.

Settingfalls

Known forA ribbon fall down the world's highest sea cliffs

A 900 m ribbon fall down the sea cliffs of Molokai — among the tallest in the world, and falling off cliffs that are themselves among the highest sea cliffs anywhere, formed when half a shield volcano collapsed into the ocean.

Settingsea-cliff fall · 900 m · volcanic collapse scarp

Known forEurope's largest fall by flow

The largest waterfall in Europe by width and flow at low height — 150 m wide and 23 m high — formed where the Rhine, diverted by ice-age glaciers into a new channel, meets hard limestone.

Settingwide fall · 23 m · limestone

Known forNew Zealand's great fall, in the wettest place it has

A 580 m fall in Fiordland, fed by a hanging lake in a glacially cut basin. It sits in one of the wettest places on earth — the Southern Alps force the Roaring Forties straight up.

Settinghanging-valley fall · 580 m · temperate rainforest

Known forThe Blue Nile's fall, now mostly diverted

A 45 m fall on the Blue Nile just below Lake Tana, whose name means smoking water. Most of its flow has been diverted to a hydroelectric station since 2003, so the fall now runs full only in the wet season.

Settingbasalt fall · 45 m · seasonal

Known forAfrica's tallest, off the Drakensberg escarpment

Five leaps down the Drakensberg escarpment — the second highest in the world.

Settingfalls

Known forThe largest sheet of falling water on earth

The largest sheet of falling water in the world, on the Zambezi at the Zambia–Zimbabwe border.

Settingfalls

Known for860 m off a glacier into the Sunndalen

Europe's tallest waterfall at 860 m, fed by the Vinnufonna glacier and dropping down the wall of a glacially cut valley into the Sunndalen.

Settingglacier-fed fall · 860 m · fjord country

Known forThe classic hanging-valley fall

A 739 m fall in three tiers off the wall of Yosemite Valley — a hanging valley, where a small glacier could not cut down as fast as the main one, so its stream is left to drop into the trunk valley.

Settinghanging-valley fall · 739 m in three tiers · glaciated

For the examA hanging valley is the diagnostic glacial landform behind it — the same relationship produces waterfalls in every formerly glaciated trough.