I know that eventually the falls will go all the way back to Lake Erie, but all the articles I’ve read say that it will cease to exist, surely that’s not possible? The elevation differential won’t just disappear, right? There will still be a falls so water can get down from Lake Erie into Ontario?
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There will still be the level difference but it depends on the underlying rocks whether it’s still just one drop. It could break up into several miles of cascades, each only a few feet of height difference.
The falls will get shorter the closer to Lake Erie. The whole length of the Niagara River will not evenly erode away and all wash out. Eventually the whole river will be like a giant slide.
Instead of a 180 foot drop all at once you will have a 180 foot change on an angle that could stretch for miles. It would become a rapids more that a waterfall.
This could be millions of years away though.
It’ll change from a sudden drop to a gradual slope. Basically the top of the fall will erode much faster than the bottom, moving the top back but not changing the bottom much. I stead of the water flowing over a cliff, it’ll become a ramp and no longer be a fall at all.
Along with the falls, most of Lake Erie will go. After the Niagara River starts eroding deeper at the outlet of Erie, the lake will shrink. At its deepest, Erie is about 30 m *above* the surface level of Lake Ontario.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Erie#/media/File:Lake_Erie_and_Lake_Saint_Clair_bathymetry_map.png
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