50 Fun Facts About Iguazu Falls

The Iguazu Falls lie on the border between which two countries?

They sit between the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná.

What does the name Iguazu mean in the Guarani language?

It combines y, meaning water, and ûasú, meaning big.

What is the name of the long, narrow chasm into which about half of the river's flow plunges?

Garganta del Diablo in Spanish, Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese; the Argentina-Brazil border runs through it.

Which side of the border holds most of the individual falls?

Brazil has over 95% of the river basin but only about 20% of the jumps.

The falls' layout is often said to resemble which letter of the alphabet, reversed?

The great central chasm sits at the bend of the reversed J.

According to legend, a deity sliced the river to create the falls after a woman named Naipí fled with her mortal lover. What was his name?

The lovers were condemned to an eternal fall.

Which Spanish conquistador was the first European to record the falls, in 1541?

He had been appointed adelantado of the Río de la Plata in 1540 and marched overland to the colony's inland capital.

Cabeza de Vaca reached the falls while marching overland to which inland Spanish capital?

He followed native trails discovered by Aleixo Garcia with 250 musketeers and 26 horses.

The falls are made of a two-step staircase formed by how many layers of basalt?

The steps are 35 and 40 metres high; the rock belongs to the 1,000-metre-thick Serra Geral formation.

How long is the edge of the falls?

About 900 metres of that length has no water flowing over it.

Depending on water level, the number of separate waterfalls fluctuates between what?

Individual cataracts range from 60 to 82 metres high; a common figure is about 275.

How wide is the Garganta del Diablo canyon, the falls' great central chasm?

It is 70 to 80 metres deep.

The largest named falls include San Martín, Bergano, Penoni and which biblically named pair?

To the left of the great chasm, 160-200 individual falls merge into a single front in flood.

Headwater erosion is cutting the falls back at roughly what rate?

The shape is controlled by 8-10 metres of highly resistant vesicular basalt at the top of each rock sequence.

What did US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaim on seeing Iguazu?

Niagara, at about 50 metres, is a third shorter.

Iguazu is wider than Victoria Falls, but Victoria holds which record?

Victoria's curtain is more than 1,600 metres wide and over 100 metres high; Iguazu is split into roughly 275 falls.

What is Iguazu's average annual flow rate?

That ranks sixth among the world's waterfalls, just behind Niagara's 2,400.

The maximum recorded flow at Iguazu, 45,700 cubic metres per second, was measured on 9 June of which year?

That is more than five times Niagara's record of 8,300.

During a severe drought in 2006, the flow over the falls shrank to roughly what?

Dry spells normally last only a few weeks; this one ran until early December.

The greatest volume of water usually flows over the falls in which months?

That coincides with one of the region's periods of heaviest rainfall; the climate is humid subtropical.

Which cataract, once among the highest-flow on Earth, was drowned in 1982 by the Itaipu reservoir, moving Iguazu up the rankings?

Thousands flocked to see them before the dam's lake covered them forever.

Below the falls, the Iguazu River drains into which major river, South America's second-longest?

The confluence marks the Triple Frontier of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

The Iguazu River rises in the Serra do Mar near which Brazilian city?

It flows 1,205 km west through Paraná state before forming the border with Argentina.

How long is the Iguazu River?

Its drainage basin covers 62,000 square kilometres and about 70% of its roughly 100 fish species are endemic.

Why are large migratory fish, common elsewhere in the Paraná basin, naturally absent from the upper Iguazu?

About 70% of the river's fish are endemic, largely thanks to that isolation.

The Argentine Iguazú National Park was created in which year?

Its Brazilian counterpart followed by federal decree in January 1939.

The Argentine and Brazilian parks were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in which two years respectively?

Both parks form part of a proposed Trinational Biodiversity Corridor with Paraguay.

Which Brazilian engineer first campaigned to preserve the falls in 1876, when Yellowstone was only four years old?

He wrote of a place "created by God", from "the beautiful to the sublime".

Which activity, offered on the Brazilian side, is prohibited on the other side because of its impact on wildlife?

Inflatable boats instead take visitors right up to the falls on that side.

Visitors on the Argentine side reach the falls by which means of transport?

The propane-fired train runs 7 km from the visitors' centre to the station at the great chasm.

How long is the Paseo Garganta del Diablo walkway that carries visitors directly over the great central chasm?

Boats also connect the Argentine walkways to San Martín Island.

Which bird species is famous for flying straight through the falls to roost on the wet cliffs behind them?

The largest of its genus, it is found in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina's Misiones province.

Which large cat, along with tapirs, ocelots and harpy eagles, lives in the Iguazú National Park?

The park lies within the Alto Paraná Atlantic forests ecoregion.

The ceibo, or cockspur coral tree, which lines the river inside the Iguazú National Park, bears which country's national flower?

The park's flora also includes lapacho and the 40-metre palo rosa.

Which Brazilian city, home to Itaipu Dam, is the main gateway to the falls on that side?

Its Argentine counterpart is Puerto Iguazú and the Paraguayan is Ciudad del Este; all three have airports.

The Itaipu Dam near the falls is the world's second-largest hydroelectric plant by output, behind which dam?

Completed in 1984, it is run jointly by Brazil and Paraguay.

At the Triple Frontier where the rivers meet, each country has erected what in its national colours?

All three countries are visible from each monument.

Which dictator was the Paraguayan city facing Foz do Iguaçu formerly named after?

Founded as Puerto Flor de Lis in 1957, it was renamed Ciudad del Este in 1989 after Stroessner's fall.

Which 1979 James Bond film used the falls as a location, even though the plot placed them in the Amazon basin?

As Q notes in the film, they were supposedly somewhere in the upper Amazon.

In the 1986 film The Mission, a Jesuit priest is sent over the falls tied to a cross, and Father Gabriel later climbs them to play which instrument?

The Palme d'Or winner starred Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro; Ennio Morricone wrote the score.

Why did Steven Spielberg send a second unit to film Iguazu for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

The falls stood in for the film's Amazon waterfall sequence.

According to Wikipedia's summary of their honours, the falls themselves received which designation in 2013?

The two national parks themselves had been World Heritage Sites since the 1980s.

The Iguazu River's flow varies with the seasons, unlike tropical rivers. Between roughly what temperatures does its water range?

The average is just below 22 °C and the pH is near neutral.

In July 2000 the Iguazu River suffered a spill of more than 4 million litres of what from a state-run refinery in Araucária?

The refinery lay near the river's source city.

Jesuit missions followed Cabeza de Vaca into the region in which year?

The Guaraní had displaced the hunter-gatherer Eldoradense culture around 1000 CE.

The Brazilian park contains a statue honouring which aviation pioneer who lobbied to protect the falls?

The statue was a homage from the now-defunct airline VASP to the man Brazilians call the Father of Aviation.

Which Brazilian agency manages Iguaçu National Park?

The park, created by federal decree in January 1939, was the first in Brazil to receive a management plan.

Which culture of hunter-gatherers lived in the Argentine park area 10,000 years ago, before the Guaraní arrived?

The Guaraní displaced them around 1000 CE and left the region its place names, including 'y guasu' for large water.

The Iguazu Falls sit on the border between the Brazilian state of Paraná and which Argentine province?

Most of the river's course lies in Brazil, but most of the individual falls are on the Argentine bank.

What is the approximate area of Argentina's Iguazú National Park?

Its Brazilian counterpart is far larger, at about 185,000 hectares, and the two together cover roughly 260,000 hectares.