I’ve read that Niagara Falls erodes backwards towards Lake Erie at a rate of 3 feet per year. This means that in a few hundred, maybe thousand (maybe even longer), the falls would have eroded all the way to Lake Erie. What will happen when it does? Will the lake’s floor begin to erode as well or will the water even out? I can’t wrap my head around it.
In: 311
The surface elevation of Lake Erie is 174m. The upper half of the falls is about 10m lower, which places the *top* of the falls below a good portion of the bottom of Lake Erie. The falls are 57m high, which puts the bottom of the falls just under 70m lower than the surface of Lake Erie. The deepest point of Lake Erie in the eastern Erie basin is 64m
So, in 50,000 years or so, when the falls erode all the way back, Lake Erie will simply cease to exist.
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/erie_300.pdf
Latest Answers