Friday, 10 February 2012
You are here: Home Amazing & Intresting Angel Falls
Angel Falls PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 20 December 2009 00:00

Angel Falls has an upper section where it emerges briefly from the slot canyon, plunges 100 feet or so and then goes into a cave or a crevice and emerges again below about 150 feet or so to take the long drop. It is extremely treacherous to move around in this area as even the short drop would kill you easily X3. You have to be anchored down when standing around the top of the falls.That leads to the second consideration, that the falls at high water creates its own weather. There are tremendous gusts of wind and waves of spray that is created by the first and second part of the falls crashing against the rocks and into the cave. Great gusts of wind emerge both above and below the cave. It is a pretty unique situation as you might expect from the world's highest waterfalls. From a distance you only see one great falls, but close up you can see a series of canyons, tunnels, and caves into which the falls enter and emerge several times at the top. In medium or high water this area is extremely violent with high unpredictable winds and waves of spray as you mentioned. The base jumpers always jump at low water to avoid the high winds. Some of the best jumpers in the world jumping under the very best of conditions have been killed there anyway.

In the western part of Canaima National Park, is the Auyantepuy, one of the largest and better known "tepuy" (A flat top mountain ending with vertical walls). From this tepuy is where the Angel falls are formed. The fall is 979 meters high (around 3000 ft.), and is the higher waterfall in the world.Spills from the Auyantepui into what is known as the Devil's canyon 979 Meters below. The local indians call it Kerepakupai-merú but is was named Angel Falls after Jimmy Angel, an American bush pilot and gold-hunting adventurer, who discovered it in 1937. The waters fall freely some 807 meters (2,648 feet) and reach the bottom of the valley as a misty spray that gathers into a small creek which eventually finds its way into the north-bound Churun River.The Natives in Venezuela had known about the "Salto Angel" since the beginning of time. Then United States pilot Jimmie Angel was flying over the area in 1935 when he landed on the top of a lone mountain in search of gold. His plane got stuck in the boggy jungle on top of the mountain and he noticed a pretty impressive waterfall plunging thousands of feet down. He wasn't too happy about the 11 mile hike back to civilization, and his plane remained stuck and rusting upon the mountain as a monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world would know about the falls, which came to be known as Angel Falls, after the pilot who "discovered" them.Angel Falls plunges from the top of a mesa, or what the natives call a Tepuyi. Named "Auyantepui", the Angel Falls mesa is one of over a hundred of its kind which are scattered about the Guiana Highlands of southeast Venezuela. Like so many slumbering giants, what characterizes these mesas (Tepuys) is their massive heights soaring up towards the sky, each with a flat top and totally vertical sides (check out the picture at left). Also called "table mountains" (which accurately describes their shapes) these Tepuys were formed out of sandstone billions of years ago. Their vertical sides are continually being eroded by the action of water from the heavy rainfall the Guiana Highlands gets.

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Angel Falls

Source: www.canyonsworldwide.com
Bookmark and Share
QUOTE THIS PAGE ON YOUR BLOG/SITE

CREATELINKTOWARDSTHISARTICLE



PREVIEWQUOTE

Angel Falls
Angel Falls has an upper section where it emerges briefly from the slot canyon, plunges 100 feet or so and...

 

More Articles...

Hercules

News image

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and who has.......

READMORE

100 Year Old Woman Glides into

News image

One-hundred-year old Peggy McAlpine paraglides off a 2,500-foot (762-meter) mountain peak in Kyrenia, northern Cyprus Oct. 31, 2007. The self confessed "daredevil" leaped into record books on Wednesday ...

READMORE

Baldwin Street - world's steep

News image

Baldwin Street, in a quiet suburban part o New Zealand's southern city of Dunedin, is reputed to be the world's steepest street. It is located in the suburb of North East ...

READMORE

Crocodile Cage of Death

News image

Although getting up-close and personal with a crocodile isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, the recently opened Crocosaurus Cove theme park, in Darwin, Australia has introduced this situation.......

READMORE

Fire Rainbow

News image

The phenomenon known as a “fire rainbow” does exist. Here, read the science behind it and marvel at some amazing photography of this.......

READMORE

The Garni Gorge

News image

Much like the Giant’s Causeway, the Garny Gorge is made out of a high number of basalt columns. It’s an absolute must-see if you find yourself......

READMORE
-
+
6