The world’s largest waterfall is under the ocean.

Waterfalls are some of the world’s most amazing wonders. Millions of people flock to these water-rushing giants — with names like Niagara, Yosemite Falls, and Iguaçu — to see them up close and in person. However, the largest waterfall in the world has no ticket counter, no gift shop, and no tourists. In fact, there’s nothing at all to see, because this waterfall is entirely underwater. 

Nestled between Greenland and Iceland is a body of water known as the Denmark Strait, and beneath its waves lies the world’s largest waterfall. Known simply as the Denmark Strait cataract (a “cataract” is a type of powerful, flowing waterfall), it cascades 11,500 feet toward the seafloor. This incredible deluge — like other underwater cataracts — is actually a dramatic dance between warm and cold water. In the case of the Denmark Strait cataract, cold water from the Nordic Sea meets the much warmer water of the Irminger Sea southwest of Iceland. The cooler, denser water sinks beneath the lighter, warmer water, dropping more than 2 miles to the seafloor. The resulting waterfall completely dwarfs Venezuela’s Angel Falls, the tallest terrestrial waterfall in the world, by more than 8,000 feet. The Denmark Strait cataract is also a staggering 100 miles wide, nearly 15 times wider than the widest terrestrial waterfall, the Khone Phapheng Falls in Laos, which is only 6.7 miles wide. By every single metric, this underwater avalanche towers over the competition — even though it never rises above sea level.