Kaieteur Falls - Guyana
Posted by: entogeek
N 05° 10.499 W 059° 28.883
21N E 224917 N 572544
Kaieteur Falls is located on the Guiana Shield in Guyana’s Kaieteur National Park.
Waymark Code: WM96ZV
Location: Guyana
Date Posted: 07/07/2010
Views: 2
At roughly two billion years old, the Guiana Shield is the earth’s oldest surface. Covering approximately 75,000 km2, this area includes a large mountain plateau and tropical rainforest that is part of a vast watershed between the Amazon and the Orinoco rivers. One of the distinctive features of the Guiana Shield are its distinctive plateaus or tabletop mountains also known as tepuis – remnants of sandstone sediments that covered the metamorphic rocks.
Kaieteur Falls first free fall drops 226 m before flowing over a cascade of falls bringing the total fall to 251 m. Five times higher than Niagara Falls, two times higher than Africa’s Victoria Falls, Kaieteur Falls, with its great height and enormous water flow at 663 meters3/second is considered one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world.
The surrounding area is also unique in that one can see endangered species, some of which live in very specific microhabitats.
Access: Co-ordinates are for the top of the falls. There are frequent flights between the falls' airstrip and Ogle Airport and Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Georgetown. Please be careful as one can walk right up to the edge of the falls. There is a foot path leading from the top of the falls to the viewing point seen in the default image.
Type: Block
Watercourse: Potaro River
Waterfall Height: 856
Seasonality: Perennial
Viewpoint: Top
Path Up and Down: Partial
Walk Behind: Not at all
Parking Coordinates: Not Listed
Seasons of Best Flow: Not listed
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