The Daily Croissant

by Chris Schmid

Iguazu Falls, Iguazu_Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu [kataˈɾatɐz du iɡwaˈsu]; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú [kataˈɾatas ðel iɣwaˈsu]; Guarani: Chororo Yguasu [ɕoɾoɾo ɨɣʷasu]) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River originates near the city of Curitiba. It flows through Brazil for most of its course. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentina.

Photographer : Hector Fabian Garrido

"The photo above showing a sensational display of lenticular clouds was snapped near La Rioja, Argentina, at the base of the Andes Mountains, on September 9, 2011. I was doing seismic testing just after sunrise and was taken aback by the gold and tawny wave clouds that appeared across much of the sky. These lenticulars took shape to the lee (east) of the Andes, just west of my location -- the Sun was behind the camera. Lenticular clouds are generally orographic in origin, forming in lee waves when air is forced to rise over elevated terrain. On this early spring morning, the smooth structure of the waves, the illumination by the low Sun, and the absence of other types of clouds, gave the sky a surreal look."

"Shared by Argentina and Chile the deepest lake in South America is famous for its trout and salmon fishing. The waters of General Carrera Lake are beautiful, a glittering combination of emerald, turquoise, aquamarine and azure. The sky may be blue but the waters seem bluer still.  

However along its banks, directly below the Andes, sheer marble cliffs present themselves to further astound the visitor. Over the millennia they have been weathered and folded to create a stunning cathedral of marble, Cavernas de Marmol."

by Ray Boren

The multiple cascades of Iguazu Falls, one of the most spectacular and intricate waterfalls in the world, slip off a basalt escarpment on the Iguazu River, along a border shared by Argentina and Brazil. In part because of the international boundary, the natural wonder is spelled and pronounced in varied ways: To the area’s native Guarani Indians this is Yguasu, which has been translated to mean, appropriately enough, “big water.” In the Spanish of Argentina (and nearby Paraguay, to which this territory once belonged), these are the Cataratas del Iguazú. In Brazilian Portugese, they are the Cataratas do Iguaçu. It's also spelled "Iguassu."

Iguazu’s cascades stretch along a subtropical ridge for about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers), most thunderously at a cleft called the Devil’s Throat. The falls in places are 260 feet (80 m) high and are broken into an estimated 275 streams. This splintering gives them a fantasy-film appearance that contrasts with the long curtains of water surging off Africa’s Victoria Falls and North America’s Niagara Falls, to which Iguazu is often compared.