Niagara Falls Is Moving. In 1969, America Switched It Off | Niagara Falls

In 1969, engineers switched off Niagara Falls. For five months, the American Falls was just a dry cliff, and people walked where the water used to fall. But that's not the strangest thing about Niagara: the falls is moving. 🌊 We follow Niagara from the Ice Age, when a mile-thick ice sheet melted and made the Great Lakes, to the cliff where the falls was born about 12,000 years ago. It has walked 7 miles (11 km) upstream since then. It stopped once by itself, the night in 1848 an ice jam corked the river, and once on purpose, in 1969. And every night, much of it is quietly switched off again. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Why was Niagara Falls switched off? 0:14 The strangest part: it's moving 0:28 20,000 years ago 0:40 The ice melted 0:52 Where Niagara was born 1:04 Hard on top, soft below 1:19 Crash! 1:31 Is Niagara Falls moving? 1:44 Will Niagara Falls disappear? 1:56 Why did Niagara Falls stop in 1848? 2:15 A trickle 2:32 The Earth does the impossible 2:46 Too many rocks 3:00 June 1969: the dam 3:14 Switched off 3:28 Back on 3:36 At night… 3:44 The secret tap 4:00 Slowed down 4:11 Still moving 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES ▸ History.com; NiagaraFallsUSA, "When and why the falls stopped flowing": the cofferdam of June 9, 1969 (about 28,000 tons of rock), the American Falls dry until November 25 ▸ NiagaraFallsUSA: up to 100,000 visitors in the first week; coins found; most rock left in place ▸ Live Science; Ripley's: the ice jam of March 29–30, 1848 (the flow stopped for more than a day; muskets and bayonets found) ▸ The Canadian Encyclopedia: Niagara Escarpment, Lockport dolomite over soft shale, erosion and retreat ▸ USGS: the Laurentide ice sheet and the Great Lakes ▸ The 1950 Niagara River Treaty: minimum flows over the falls by day in the tourist season; more diverted for power at night and in winter ▸ Note: "about 50,000 years" to Lake Erie is a geologists' estimate. 🎬 Watch next: the day the Mediterranean Sea disappeared 👉    • You Could Once Walk From Europe to Africa   🔔 Subscribe to Curious Planet for new stories every Tuesday, Friday & Sunday. #NiagaraFalls #Niagara #Geology #History #CuriousPlanet