One day in early February , Ecuador ’s tallest waterfall disappear .
Until not too long ago , the Cayambe Coca National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon was house toSan Rafael Waterfall , a 150 - time ( 492 - foot ) gamey waterfall wall by lush flora and a sensational amount of biodiversity . But by February 2 , 2020 , theMinistry of Tourism Ecuadorannounced the gushing cascade of water system had been reduced to a lightly trickling stream .
“ Unfortunately , Cascada San Rafael is now part of story and will not return , ” said a MAE spokesperson , harmonise toCuencaHighLife , a local English - terminology news root .
The sharp variety was document in photo by theMinistry of Environment Ecuador(MAE ) andNASA imagestaken by the Landsat 8 planet .
MAEsays the sinkhole was formed by landslides that occurred on February 2 around the Coca River . They have closed the ring orbit to tourists and continue to supervise the river for further landslides , as well as any likely peril to the common ’s biodiversity . harmonise toMongabay , the landslide helped to create a sink just a few time before the falls , causing the water to flow in three freestanding sections down a less steep slope .
The precise grounds of the landslide , however , remains a stage of controversy .
The San Rafael Waterfall lay in a seismically dynamic area that ’s home to the Cayambe vent and Reventador volcano , so a course occurring landslip is not all too surprising given the surface area ’s geology .
On the other mitt , some have intimate the landslip were actually the result of the late structure of Coca Codo Sinclair Dam , one of Ecuador ’s largest hydroelectric plants found upstream . The theory goes that the dam requires river water to be filtered so it does n’t damage the equipment . The deficiency of sediment cause the water stream to become more erosive to the bed and bank of the river below the dam , shit it more prone to collapse .
“ A falls that has been there for thousands of long time does not collapse , coincidentally , a few year after opening a hydroelectric project . These are processes that are in scientific papers and there is sufficient evidence that a dam can cause effects of this character on a river , ” Emilio Cobo , coordinator of the South America Water Program at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) , toldMongabay .
