Niagara Falls for the Dummy Geology Student

A couple of the Antisocial Network staffers went for a well-deserved vacation trip this fall, and along the way they stopped to have a peek at what may be one of the most iconic tourist sites in eastern North America – downtown Buffalo, New York. No, seriously, they took their dogs for a walk along the rim of Niagara Falls. One of the staffers asked the other, "How Was Niagara Falls Formed?" and the two did some research. Along the way, they found eHowian Kevin Lee and his bungled attempt to answer the question for Sciencing.com.

Lee found himself some "references," and harvested a wealth of touristy factoids from two of them. Of his 290-word article, 127 are a description of the three separate falls known as "Niagara" and 54 describe the rate of erosion. That leaves an introduction and a brief discussion of the history Kevin plucked from a semi-scholarly article on the natural history of the falls, which goes like this:

"The area where Niagara Falls sits was under a mile of glacial ice during the last ice age. When the ice retreated about 16,000 years ago, water from the Great Lakes looked for a low path over which it could flow. About 12,000 years ago, that water found a path through the Niagara Escarpment and began to carve out the Niagara River." Well, whoop-de-do, Kevin. What would actually make that a discussion of how the falls formed would be... well, would be some sort of mention of just what the hey that "Niagara Escarpment" thing is. One of Lee's references goes into some detail about topographic feature known as the Niagara Escarpment, but Kevin either didn't understand it or thought the touristy stuff would be more... interesting. Unfortunately, he didn't answer the question – but we will. So here goes:

The Niagara Escarpment is an east-facing cliff of 400-plus million year old limestone that was deposited in a shallow, circular depression centered on modern-day Michigan. The cliff face marks the eroded edge of a regional limestone layer that tilts gently westward, toward the center of the basin. When the continental glaciers that formed the Great Lakes retreated, the melt water began pouring over a low spot in the cliff on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, forming the Niagara River. In the past 12,000 years or so, the river has eroded a long notch in the cliff face, forming a gorge downstream of the falls.
Add that to the rubbish Lee published and you have a simple but fairly accurate description of how the falls formed – as opposed to tourist crap pumped out by our Dumbass of the Day.

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