Their name comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y (IPA:[i]) (water) and ûasú (IPA:[wa'su]) (big). According to legend, a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.
Iguazu Falls Waterfalls
Called the Devil’s Throat, Iguazu Falls is located on the Iguassa or Iguaça River on the border of Brazil and Argentina. Composed of an impressive set of nearly 300 waterfalls plunging over the border between two countries, Iguazu has falls which are over 492 feet long. Although the cliff from which the water falls is up to 2.5 miles long and at its tallest falls reaches heights of 269 feet. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu.
The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, to which one of the falls in the Argentine side is named. The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the Argentine falls is named after him.
The Iguazu Falls consists of a wide horseshoe shaped set of falls. According to some people the shape is more of crescent shaped. The falls is said to be surrounded by thick green jungle forests filled with bamboo and palm trees. The river before it hits the falls twists over the Parana Plateau to make it to sea level. With the sound of the falls that can be heard from miles away, most of the Iguazu Falls are cascade waterfalls and in the process of falling they send up lots of mist which prisms the daylight creating lots of rainbows to dazzle the observer.
One of the falls has been dubbed as ‘Garganta del Diablo’ or Devil’s throat may because of the thunderous roaring of the falls. Tumultuous, where a spray of water is sent high over the cliff is thought to be the home of the river’s god. The name Iguazu means ‘y guasu’ or big water which came from the local Guarani language.
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The falls were really created by a fault in the earth’s crust that causes one section of the land to be higher than the other according to the geology of the area. The water flows over the falls in the months between November and March at a tremendous 450,000 cubic feet per second. The falls are said to be seasonal. The water level of the river in the winter is much lower so that less water flows considerably less. The land in the area is characterized by volcanic rock that has dried in mantles that layer one on top of the other. Also as a result of it volcanic beginnings some areas of the river bed are more resistant to erosion than others. However the water from the falls does erode the rock slowly and over time the falls have gradually eroded backwards and will continue to do so.