Waterfalls, sometimes called cataracts, arise from an abrupt steepening of a river channel that causes the flow of water to drop vertically, or nearly so. Waterfalls of small height and lesser steepness are called cascades; the term is often applied to a series of small falls along a river. Still gentler reaches of rivers that nonetheless exhibit turbulent flow and white water in response to a local increase in channel gradient are rapids.

Waterfalls are characterized by great erosive power. The rapidity of erosion depends on the height of a given waterfall, its volume of flow, the type and structure of the rocks involved, and other factors. In some cases the site of the waterfall migrates upstream by headward erosion of the cliff or scarp, whereas in others erosion tends to act downward to bevel the entire reach of river containing the falls. With the passage of time, by either or both of these means, the inescapable tendency of streams is to eliminate so gross a discordance of longitudinal profile as a waterfall. The energy of all rivers is directed toward the achievement of a relatively smooth, concave-upward, longitudinal profile; this is a common equilibrium, or adjusted condition, in nature.

Even in the absence of entrained rock debris that serves as an erosive tool of rivers, it is intuitively obvious that the energy available for erosion at the base of a waterfall is great. Indeed, one of the characteristic features associated with waterfalls of any great magnitude—with respect to volume of flow as well as to height—is the presence of a plunge pool, a basin that is scoured out of the river channel directly beneath the falling water. In some instances the depth of a plunge pool may nearly equal the height of the cliff causing the falls. Its depth depends not only on the erosive power of the falls, however, but also on the amount of time during which the falls remain at a particular place. The channel of the Niagara River below Horseshoe Falls, for example, contains a series of plunge pools, each of which represents a stillstand, or period of temporary stability, during the general upriver migration of the waterfall. The significance of this profile will be discussed below, but in general it may be said that the fate of most waterfalls is their eventual transformation to rapids as a result of their own erosive energy.

The lack of permanence as a landscape feature is, in fact, the hallmark of all waterfalls. Many well-known occurrences such as the Niagara Falls came into existence as recently as 11,700 years ago, when the last of the great ice sheets retreated from middle latitudes. The oldest falls originated during the Neogene Period (23,000,000 to 2,600,000 years ago), when episodes of uplift raised the great plateaus and escarpments of Africa and South America. Examples of waterfalls attributable to such pre-Pleistocene uplift (that occurring more than 2,600,000 years ago) include Kalambo Falls, near Lake Tanganyika; Tugela Falls, in South Africa; Tisisat Falls, at the headwaters of the Blue Nile on the Ethiopian Plateau; and Angel Falls, in Venezuela.

Available data suggest that the falls of greatest height are seldom those of greatest water discharge. Many falls in excess of 300 metres exhibit but modest flow, and, in some cases, only a perpetual mist occurs near their bases. By way of contrast, the Khone Falls of the Mekong River in southern Laos drop only 22 metres, but the average discharge of this cataract is about 11,330 cubic metres per second. In general, considering height and volume of flow jointly, it is understandable that Victoria, Niagara, and Paulo Afonso, among others, have each been proclaimed “the world’s greatest falls” by various explorers and authorities.

The height and volume of flow of selected waterfalls of the world are given in the table.