Niagara Falls and Taughanook Falls

Niagara Falls (left), the most powerful waterfall in New York, was carved out by the large volume of water released from melting glaciers. Taughannock Falls (right), the tallest waterfall in New York, is only the tallest because the glaciers carved out steep valleys into which the Taughannock Creek abruptly falls. This creek feeds into Cayuga Lake: one of the Finger Lakes. Both waterfalls flow over and cut into sedimentary rocks which formed, in large part, from the eroded rock of previous orogenies during the Silurian and Devonian Periods. Photos courtesy of Alexandra Bancos.