A waterfall only requires two things: water, and a drop to fall down. Actually, that's not quite true. All rivers and streams, by their very nature, are descending as they make their way to the sea, so clearly something else is required. That thing is geological inconsistency.
For a river to become a fall it needs to pass from hard bedrock onto softer ground. Then, as the slow laborious process of erosion gradually eats away at the weaker terrain, leaving the tougher stuff marked but unmoved, a difference in gradient begins to grow. A step is created, and as that step grows higher, the violence of the water increases, pummelling at the soft bedrock, washing it away and increasing its exposure to gravity.
Mountains are undoubtedly areas of geological inconsistency. They're pushed…
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Trail United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2023