Europe's most powerful waterfall.
Detifoss in Iceland is one of a series of falls on the Jokulsa a Fyolum river that drains the ice cap of Vatnajokul and much of the island's northeast. A hundred metres wide, and with a forty five metre plummet into Jökulsárgljúfur canyon, it is eroding the porous basalt lava flow through which it cuts at a very high rate. The river is a grey colour because of all the glacier ground rock flour it carries, and the falls have the highest discharge rate of any in Europe, ranging between 200 cubic metres per second and 600 during spring melts or when volcanic activity melts the ice cap. The falls are so powerful that the rocks can reputedly be felt vibrating underhand. What it must look like when a jokulhlaup (see http://tinyurl.com/q8k4tcd) passes through boggles the mind.
The waterfall was featured in the opening scene of the movie Prometheus.
Loz
Image credit: Hansueli Krapf.
http://www.vatnajokulsthjodgardur.is/english/education/dettifoss/
http://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/iceland-dettifoss.html
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/06/dettifoss-most-powerful-waterfall-in.html
http://www.vatnajokulsthjodgardur.is/english/what-to-see/hiking-routes/the-jokulsargljufur-canyon/dettifoss/
