Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol. 44 - A Waterfall Within The Water (The Underwater Waterfall In Mauritius)

Welcome once again, Steemians! A new week has just begun and today I am taking you on a helicopter ride above the island of Mauritius. Did you get your seatbelts fastened? Let's take off!

Our flight begins and we can see the green forests and mountains below us. As we head southwest to the sea we marvel at the blue shades that surround the island, the waves that kiss the shores and our eyes catch an image quite anorthodox. At some point the waters seem to be poured into a sea fault. Is it, is it an underwater waterfall?!

Image from: scienceblogs.com - Credits: Michael Friedel on foto-friedel.com

So it seems

The image, marvellous as it looks, is nothing more than an optical illusion!

And who is the magician?

Mother nature of course!

Reveal the trick, please!

Mauritius is a relatively young island in the Indian Ocean that formed around 8 million years ago thanks to volcanic activity in the ocean. A group of islands, known as the Mascarene Islands, are currently "sitting" on the same oceanic plateau, the Mascarene Plateau (an oceanic or submarine plateau is an elevation of the seafloor created by volcanic activity from underwater lava flows). 

The island is surrounded by a quite narrow underwater shelf (a relatively shallow and flat underwater piece of land), which forms a lagoon that sits between two volcanic peaks (to the West: Le Morne Brabant and to the East: Mount Laporte and Pilton du Fuge). A coral reef also surrounds the island. As you leave Mauritius, a deep drop-off of almost 4000 meters takes you down to the abyss. The rift begins from Pilton du Fuge and reaches 1.5 kilometers offshore from the island, where it cuts off the coral reefs from the rest of the sea. In the pictures you don't see water falling into a deep fault, but sand and silt sliding down the plateau's edges moved by the ocean currents. The water of the lagoon is believed to have higher salinity levels than the ocean water, therefore it is denser and moves along with the sand and silt, making the "visual effects" more intense. 

The real underwater waterfall does exist, though... kind off. As we move to the edges of the island shelf, the denser water and sand sink to greater depths within the rift. Too bad we can't see it from our helicopter :P

Check the image gallery from huffingtonpost.com.

Watch this helicopter tour of the waterfall

References

kuoni.co.uk
scienceblogs.com
aquiziam.com
earthporm.com
worldlandforms.com
wikipedia.org

Thank you so much for your time!

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!