Niagara Falls flows over 400-million-year-old layered rock

Niagara’s bedrock holds 440-million-year-old coral fossils

The Lockport Dolomite that caps Niagara Falls is composed of fossilized coral reefs from a tropical sea that once covered the region 440 million years ago.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Water from four Great Lakes feeds Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is powered by water from Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. The Great Lakes basin spans over 260,000 square miles and holds nearly 20% of the world's surface freshwater—about two-thirds of which passes over the falls.

Niagara Falls is slowly eroding backward toward Lake Erie

At its current erosion rate of roughly one foot per year, Niagara Falls is expected to retreat all the way to Lake Erie in about 50,000 years.

When Niagara Falls stopped flowing

In 1969, engineers stopped Niagara Falls for the first time in 12,000 years to prevent erosion revealing hidden coins, boulders, and a rare dry view before restoring its roa

Whirlpool Rapids formed in a matter of days during the last ice age

Niagara Falls' dramatic whirlpool rapids were created in a matter of weeks when the retreating Falls intersected a buried ice age riverbed—generating North America's largest standing waves.

Niagara Falls consists of three different waterfalls

The famous landmark is made up of the American, Canadian, and Bridal Veil falls. Of the three, Bridal Veil is the smallest and forms the other boundary of a small slice of area known as Luna Island, where tourists can view the scene.

Niagara Falls generates its own microclimate

Constant mist from the Falls produces localized weather effects, including rare ice formations that can rise over 100 feet high in winter.

Niagara's flow is changed artificially to accommodate tourists and power generation

The natural wonder is also the site of great engineering feats, from the Welland Dam that first allowed ships to travel from the upper lakes to the St. Lawrence Seaway, to one of the first hydroelectric dams.

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has many tourist attractions

The Canadian side features Ripley's Believe it or Not, Louis Tussaud's Waxworks, tunnels behind the Falls and more. A short walk from the falls leads to Clifton Hill, packed with arcades, mini golf, haunted houses, and carnival-style attractions.

Local limestone made waterproof cement for the Erie Canal

In 1818, engineer Canvass White discovered that limestone near Chittenango, New York, could be processed into hydraulic (or waterproof) cement. This breakthrough replaced costly European imports, enabling watertight locks and aqueducts and revolutionizing American construction.

The world's largest waterfall is in the ocean

In the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, a series of cataracts descend from 2,000 to 10,000 feet beneath the surface. The underwater waterfall is possible because cold water is denser than warm water and quickly sinks in the region.

Annie Taylor tested her Falls barrel by sending her cat first

Before her 1901 plunge over Niagara Falls, Annie Edson Taylor sent her cat inside a barrel as a test. The cat survived—and later posed with her in post-stunt photos.

Paleontologists apply rules about rock layering, fossilization, and radioactivity to date geological samples

Concepts such as the understanding that older rock layers will form beneath newer ones allow scientists to compare the ages of samples from various layers. Although no geological site preserves evidence across all time, samples can be combined with fossils of known age, such as those dated by analyzing the decay of their radioactive isotopes, to reconstruct Earth's timeline.

A look at the Kidd Creek Mine in Canada, which houses the world's oldest isolated water

The mine sits on the Precambrian Canadian Shield—an ocean floor dating back 2.7 billion years. Exhibiting a musty smell, the water is 10 times saltier than seawater and offers insights into Earth's ancient seabed.

A primer on reading the rock layers of roadcuts

Road construction often requires cutting through layers of rocks, coincidentally exposing millions of years of rock formation. This simple guide introduces basic rock types, what causes curves and folds, and the major rock formations in regions around the US.

Geological features on Mars' surface provide evidence of massive past flooding

The presence of river valleys, enormous canyons, and other structures carved by water on Earth suggests that water flowed abundantly across Mars' surface. The layering of rocks in the walls of these structures indicates the intensity and volume of these flows.

Layers of minerals revealed by erosion give Vinicunca its distinct colorations

Located in Peru's Andean mountains, Rainbow Mountain is known for its vibrant colors, which result from layers of minerals such as clay, sandstone, argillite, and limonite exposed over millions of years by rain, snowfall, and strong winds.

A look at how fish less than two inches long climb up 50-foot waterfalls

Shellears use tiny hooks on their front pectoral fins to grip rock like Velcro and take many pauses to recover energy between bursts of movement. Their pectoral girdle—an arch of bone—supports the muscle system needed for the roughly ten-hour climb.

Geode formation begins with trapped gas bubbles in igneous or sedimentary rock

Over thousands or millions of years, water seeps into the cavity created by the bubble and deposits minerals, which slowly build and crystallize into quartz, agate, amethyst or other crystals.

Large igneous provinces are regions of massive ancient volcanic activity

Linked to some mass extinction events on Earth, LIPs contain significant amounts of igneous rock formed by the release of lava and gases over millions of years. India's Deccan Traps and the Siberian Traps are prominent examples of LIPs, whose climate-related impacts can serve as models for analyzing modern climate change.

The three theories explaining how the pyramids were built

There's no consensus over how the ancient monuments were built, and no blueprints left behind. But centuries of study have produced three competing theories: a simple, massive external ramp, a more complex internal ramp, or a highly sophisticated water elevator.

Earth's inner structure is a dynamic system of layers in constant, slow motion

From the crust to the core, each of Earth's layers—some solid, some liquid—plays a role in generating its magnetic field, moving tectonic plates, and cycling matter. These details are determined through modeling since humans have only drilled 12 kilometers underground.

Yellowstone National Park is situated atop an active supervolcano

Yellowstone showcases geothermal phenomena, including the famous Old Faithful geyser and the vibrant Grand Prismatic Spring. The park's unique geological and ecological features make it an exceptional destination for visitors from around the globe.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

The impressive walls of Constantinople

This video explores the land walls of Constantinople, built on the orders of Theodosius II in the mid-fifth century. They consisted of a triple line of defenses, studded with hundreds of towers and supplemented with a moat. The walls were besieged dozens of times, but were only broken in 1453 by the power of Ottoman cannons. As repaired by the Ottomans, the walls are still largely intact today.

The ginkgo tree is a living fossil that has not changed in over 200 million years

Having outlived the dinosaurs, the tree has no living relatives as the only surviving species of the genus Ginkgo. Its growth in undisturbed environments, pollution resistance, and foul-smelling seeds may have contributed to its survivability.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.