The falls are located at Beaver Brook Falls Wayside and Scenic Area, consists of 7.3 acres with picnic area and rest facilities. It was donated to the state of New Hampshire in 1961 and is part of the Division of Parks.
The falls occurs at a dark quartzite jagged ledge. The Beaver Brook fans out over a sliding cascade, then broadens and drops over a sheer and jagged cliff face before collecting itself and cascading about 25-30' more to the base.
You can climb to the top of the falls. Best way is very crude trail on left side of the falls. If you do this, please be very careful. For the ambitious, use your GPS to measure the elevation at top and bottom of the falls
To log this Earth Cache you must:
A. Post a picture of you with the falls in the background. Now optional, but nice to see the falls through different seasons and water flows
B. Answer the following questions:
1) Estimate the total height of the falls? Rough guess is fine.
2) Approximately how high is the free fall drop section of the falls?
3) How large (width, length, depth) is the pool at the base of the falls?
4) What type of waterfall is this? (Multiple answers are ok)
DO NOT post your answers to the questions in the log. Email me the answers.
Be sure to get the regular cache also located near the falls.
What is a Waterfall?
A waterfall is usually a geological formation resulting from water, often in the form of a stream, flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a sudden break in elevation. Some waterfalls form in mountain environments where the erosive water force is high and stream courses may be subject to sudden and catastrophic change. In such cases, the waterfall may not be the end product of many years of water action over a region, but rather the result of relatively sudden geological processes such as landslides, faults or volcanic action.
Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks which may have been formed by a fault line. Over a period of years, the edges of this shelf will gradually break away and the waterfall will steadily retreat upstream, creating a gorge of recession. Often, the rock stratum just below the more resistant shelf will be of a softer type, meaning undercutting, due to splashback, will occur here to form a shallow cave-like formation known as a rock shelter or plunge pool under and behind the waterfall.
Eventually, the outcropping, more resistant cap rock will collapse under pressure to add blocks of rock to the base of the waterfall. These blocks of rock are then broken down into smaller boulders by attrition as they collide with each other, and they also erode the base of the waterfall by abrasion, creating a deep plunge pool. Streams become wider and more shallow just above waterfalls due to flowing over the rock shelf, and there is usually a deep pool just below the waterfall because of the kinetic energy of the water hitting the bottom.
Waterfalls can occur along the edge of glacial trough, whereby a stream or river flowing into a glacier continues to flow into a valley after the glacier has receded or melted. The large waterfalls in Yosemite Valley are examples of this phenomenon. The rivers are flowing from hanging valleys.
Types of Waterfalls
Block: Water descends from a relatively wide stream or river.
Cascade: Water descends a series of rock steps.
Cataract: A large waterfall.
Fan: Water spreads horizontally as it descends while remaining in contact with bedrock.
Horsetail: Descending water maintains some contact with bedrock.
Plunge: Water descends vertically, losing contact with the bedrock surface.
Punchbowl: Water descends in a constricted form, then spreads out in a wider pool.
Segmented: Distinctly separate flows of water form as it descends.
Tiered: Water drops in a series of distinct steps or falls.
Multi-Step: A series of waterfalls one after another of roughly the same size each with its own sunken plunge pool.
Reference: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia