The Waterfall Hidden Beneath the Ocean

Transcript

Between Greenland and Iceland, cold water spills through the Denmark Strait.

But this isn’t water falling through air.

It’s a current flowing through other water.

Cold water is denser than the warmer water around it.

So gravity draws it down, over an underwater ridge and along the seabed.

The descending current carries millions of cubic metres of water every second.

Scientists call this giant overflow the Denmark Strait cataract.

It helps feed the deep circulation of the Atlantic Ocean.

An enormous waterfall. Hidden inside the sea.

Attribution

Research: NOAA National Ocean Service and University of Barcelona; surface photographs: NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin (MODIS) and NASA GSFC MODIS Land Rapid Response Team; maps: Natural Earth; two illustrative scenes generated with Meta AI; original diagrams, animation and sound cues by AskPandi; voiceover generated with ElevenLabs. AI scenes are illustrations, not documentary footage or measured simulations. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}