SECRET REVEALED
BIRTH OF A WATERFALL
Tlie Secret Falls of Iceland are a secret no more. They have been visited bv a party of three from Cambridge who can now tell us the tremendous way in which Nature makes a waterfall.
It flows out from Hagavatn, a heartshaped lake, one of a chain of four and 1500 feet above sea-level. 1' or -0 years a glacier lay above the outlet and the lake steadily tilled up behind it. The glacier formed the dam.
Five years ago came the burst and 70,000,000 tons of water were suddenly released to sweep over the edge in a sheet 300 yards broad, cutting through the volcanic soil forming the sill and carrying the debris of lava over scieia. miles of the plain below.
It was thought that after the burst the lake would soon empty, but it is continually fed by other glacier streams and the outlet is now a river <0 yards broad, waist deep, and swiftly flowing. The water plunges over the Falls in three leaps, forming a drop of over _oo feet.
Three times before the lake has flooded but never cut through the rock, and the present twisted gorge was cut by that one flood of five years ago, possibly in an hour or so.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19350112.2.164.23
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 23
Word count
Tapeke kupu
215SECRET REVEALED Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 23
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in