Can water wear away solid rock?
Water itself cannot wear away rock, but tiny particles of grit carried in the water can eventually wear away the hardest rocks. It is this continuous wearing process that cuts valleys through mountains and hills. The faster the water flows, the more the grit it carries wears away at the rock. You can see the same process in action along the coast. There, rocks are worn away by the action of sand dashed against them by the waves.
Picture credit: google
Which is the world’s highest waterfall?
The Angel Falls in Venezuela, South America, fall 807 m in a single drop. Much more water flows over Victoria Falls in southern Africa and Niagara Falls on the US-Canadian border, but these falls are not so high. Waterfalls occur when a river flows over hard rock lying over softer rock. The hard rock forms a ‘lip’ for the waterfall, and the water wears away the softer rock below, forming a step that gradually becomes deeper.
Picture credit: google
