Eugenia Falls and Niagara Escarpment
December 29, 2011
Photographer: David Wigglesworth
Summary Author: David Wigglesworth; Stu Witmer
The Niagara Escarpment is part of the Michigan Basin, a 440 million year old geological feature that stretches in a huge arc from upstate New York, across Ontario and Michigan to eastern Wisconsin. Eugenia Falls, pictured above, on the Beaver River, about 72 mi (116 km) northwest of Toronto is one of the many waterfalls of the Niagara Escarpment. The area near the falls was the site of a brief gold rush in the 1850s that quickly became a Fool’s Gold Rush when the "gold" was discovered to be iron pyrite. Shortly thereafter, the falls became the power source for several mills. Later a hydroelectric plant was built to power local industry and to provide electricity to the nearby towns. Today the station generates a continuous 6.3 megawatts from the highest head in eastern North America. Most of the water of the Beaver River is diverted for power generation, approximately 0.6 mi (1 km) upstream from the falls. This leaves little more than a trickle of water in the river in late summer, when this photo was taken on August 28, 2011.
Photo Details: Camera Maker: OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.; Camera Model: StylusTough-8010; Focal Length: 9.4mm (35mm equivalent: 52mm); Aperture: f/5.0; Exposure Time: 0.013 s (1/80); ISO equiv: 80; Exposure Bias: none; Metering Mode: Matrix; Exposure: Creative Program (based towards depth of field); White Balance: Auto; Flash Fired: No (enforced); Color Space: sRGB.