niagra falls history

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Subject DD MM YYYY Niagra Falls History The magnificent Niagara Falls straddles at the borders between two cities, Ontario, Canada and New York, United States of America. The spectacular beauty charms millions of visitors and tourists pouring from around the world to witness the bright, green, flowing stream that eventually gets lost in a white cloud of spray forming a conspicuously floating rainbow. The ever-varied, yet continuous motion that forces against the air creating fascination and awe alike among the multitude, in long procession, trickles in to see this amazement. Beyond Niagara Fall’s natural beauty, puzzled geologists and geographers plow in wonder and curiosity to understand this great drama of nature. Niagara River has its source at the eastern end Lake Erie and generally flows north approximately along 79th meridian. Niagara Falls is composed of three individual falls and is the outlet for four of the largest water lakes globally-Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie (Tesmar 1). The river flows at a rate of 5720 cubic meters (202,000 cubic feet) per second. While 2830 cubic meter per second passes over the Horseshoe and American Falls at its peak, the rest is used for hydroelectric power general through tunnel diversions (Tesmer 3). Horseshoe Fall is deeper and broader located on the southwestern Canadian side while the American Fall, as the name suggests, is located on the American side (Karl 211). A historical approach by geologists can be traced by the accounts of early traveler, personages, poets and scientists such as Samuel de Champlain (1604), the earliest known written account of Niagara Fall (Tesmer 8). For more than 350 years, people have expressed their fascination by the fall through various forms of communication. The graphical images that have depicted Niagara Fall include paintings, photographs, and etchings (McGreevy 2). After millions of years of geographical transformation, Niagara Escarpment is formed “by the laying down of countless layers of sedimentary rocks and then by the slow erosion of ice and water” (Berton, 12). The transformation lays a foundation for the formation of the Niagara River, which is barely twelve years old. At the very crossroads of the North American continent, the rugged cliff of dolostone and shale over which Niagara River thrusts forming the world’s second-largest cataract (Berton, 12). The formation begins with Niagara Escarpment which gets filled with a blanket of ice over two million years ago. The ice age I made possible by the sudden but slow drop in temperature. Short summers produce springs that wither fast as winter stretches out. Increased heat by the sun creates a warmer environment that retreats the advanced ic...