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Niagara Falls (Waterfalls)
Niagara Falls, a spectacular waterfall in the Niagara River, is the world’s greatest waterfall by volume at 2,832 m3. It is split in two by Goat Island. The American Falls are 59 m high (21–34 m to rock debris at the base of the falls) and 260 m wide and carry about 10 per cent of the flow. The Canadian, or Horseshoe, Falls are 54 m high and 670 m wide, with the remaining 90 per cent of the flow. However, only the Canadian Falls fall freely to the Maid-of-the-Mist pool, where they have excavated a basin as deep or deeper than they are tall. The falls were formed some 14,000 years ago as retreating glaciers exposed the Niagara Escarpment, permitting the waters of Lake Erie, which formerly drained south, to flow northward into Lake Ontario.