Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
Question: ‘Poor Niagara!’ These were the words uttered by Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady and wife of the US President Franklin Roosevelt (Photo, on Right) upon seeing a waterfall situated at Brazil-Argentina border in South America. The reaction of the First Lady was obvious, as the waterfall which she saw in front of her eyes was four times broader than the Niagara, and moreover, its gushing sound was heard at a distance of 24 kilometres. Which waterfall are we talking about?
Answer: The Iguazu Falls (photo, below) which was discovered in 1541. Its height is 82 metres (269 feet) and breadth is 2.7 kilometres. Like the Niagara, it is also horse shoe-shaped. These falls originate from the 1,320 kilometres long Iguazu River and descend in the form of 275 different waterfalls and its droplets rise up to 150 metres (460 feet) in the sky due to the tremendous force. At the rate of 12,750 cubic metres per second, the maximum quantity of the water that gushes through it on a daily basis is 11 million cubic metres (twice the amount of water in the Niagara Falls). This makes Iguazu ralls the greatest waterfalls in the world.
Iguazu Falls