Siri Waterfall, formerly called ''Santa Maria Waterfall'', is a
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 ...
located about 3 km inland from the eastern coast of the island of
Gaua
Gaua (formerly known as ''Santa Maria Island'') is the largest and second most populous of the Banks Islands in Torba Province in northern Vanuatu. It covers .
Geography
Gaua is subject to frequent earthquakes and cyclones. The climate is ...
in northern
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...
.
The supply of water to the waterfall is from
Lake Letas. This lake is a large freshwater lake located in the crater at the centre of the volcanic island, about 600 meters above sea level. Water flows from the lake 3 km east to the top of Siri Waterfall. After the waterfall, the water flows as a large stream, called ''Bē Solomul River'' (formerly ''Namang''), for another 3 km before it reaches the sea. The large stream is known as "Big Water".
A rough estimate of the water flow rate (during the dry season month of August 2006) was approximately 5 cubic metres per second.
Name
The name ''siri'' means ‘waterfall’ in the local
Nume language. It is cognate with
Vurës ''sēriv'' ,
Mwotlap
Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of ...
''na-syip'' ,
Mota ''siriv'' ,
Dorig ''sriv'' ,
Olrat ''siriv'' ,
Lakon ''hiriv'' , and
Mwerlap ''siriw'' . All of these terms can be derived from
Proto-Torres–Banks ''*siriβi'' ‘waterfall’.
[See p.499 of: .]
References
Waterfalls of Vanuatu
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