Paulo Afonso Falls ( Portuguese: Cachoeira de Paulo Afonso) is a series of

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s on the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large Rivers of Brazil, river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon R ...

in the north-east of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

adjacent to the city of

Paulo Afonso Paulo Afonso is a city in Bahia, Brazil. It was founded in 1958. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paulo Afonso. The city is served by Paulo Afonso Airport. The municipality contains part of the Raso da Catarina ecoregi ...

Structure

The falls consist of a series of tiered cascades that descend approximately before plunging into a narrow

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

. The falls have an overall height of . Prior to damming, the falls had an estimated flow rate of and a maximum flow rate of at least . This would have made the falls the largest in Brazil and among the largest in the world.

History

The waterfall has been known to the indigenous population of the

basin since time immemorial and to Portuguese colonizers since the 16th century.

Damming

In 1912, the

was dammed by the Hidrelétrica de Angiquinho upstream of the falls. The hydroelectric dam the first hydroelectric power station in northeastern Brazil. In the early 1940s, the Brazilian government sponsored the expansion of the Hidrelétrica de Angiquinho to provide much of the semi-arid interior with a reliable source of electricity. Construction of the

Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex The Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex (Complexo Hidrelétrico de Paulo Afonso), also known as the Paulo Afonso Complex, is a system of three dams and five hydroelectric power plants on the São Francisco River near the city of Paulo Afonso in ...

began in 1948, which greatly reduced the volume of water flowing over the falls. Since the completion of the hydroelectric complex, the falls have acted as a natural spillway during high rainfall years.Usina Hidrelétrica de Xingó - Piranhas/AL

Gallery

File:E. F. Schute - Cachoeira de Paulo Afonso, 1850.jpg, Painting of Paulo Afonso Falls by E. F. Schute, 1850 File:Paulo afonso falls 1875.jpg, Paulo Afonso Falls, 1875 File:Cachoeira de Paulo Afonso 2018-03-10.jpg, Paulo Afonso Falls, 2018

References

External links