Math Is Fun Forum

2383) Ostrich

Gist

Ostriches have special features including being the world's largest and fastest flightless bird, with powerful two-toed legs, largest eyes of any land animal, and unique two-toed feet. Their specialized feathers help with temperature regulation, their large wings are used for balance, and their powerful kicks serve as a potent defense mechanism. 

Summary

Details

Additional Information

The flightless ostrich is the world's largest bird. They roam African savanna and desert lands and get most of their water from the plants they eat.

Speed and Movement

Though they cannot fly, ostriches are fleet, strong runners. They can sprint up to 43 miles an hour and run over distance at 31 miles an hour. They may use their wings as "rudders" to help them change direction while running. An ostrich's powerful, long legs can cover 10 to 16 feet in a single stride. These legs can also be formidable weapons. Ostrich kicks can kill a human or a potential predator like a lion. Each two-toed foot has a long, sharp claw.

Herds and Reproduction

Ostriches live in small herds that typically contain less than a dozen birds. Alpha males maintain these herds, and mate with the group's dominant hen. The male sometimes mates with others in the group, and wandering males may also mate with lesser hens. All of the group's hens place their eggs in the dominant hen's nest—though her own are given the prominent center place. The dominant hen and male take turns incubating the giant eggs, each one of which weighs as much as two dozen chicken eggs.

Behavior and Diet

Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand. The old saw probably originates with one of the bird's defensive behaviors. At the approach of trouble, ostriches will lie low and press their long necks to the ground in an attempt to become less visible. Their plumage blends well with sandy soil and, from a distance, gives the appearance that they have buried their heads in the sand.

Ostriches typically eat plants, roots, and seeds but will also eat insects, lizards, or other creatures available in their sometimes harsh habitat.

Details:

Scientific classification

Kingdom  :  Animalia
Phylum  :  Chordata
Class  :  Aves
Infraclass  :  Palaeognathae
Order  :  Struthioniformes
Family  :  Struthionidae
Genus  :  Struthio

Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised; the common ostrich, native to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa.

They are the heaviest and largest living birds, with adult common ostriches weighing anywhere between 63.5 and 145 kilograms and laying the largest eggs of any living land animal. With the ability to run at 70 km/h (43.5 mph), they are the fastest birds on land. They are farmed worldwide, with significant industries in the Philippines and in Namibia. South Africa produces about 70% of global ostrich products, with the industry largely centered around the town of Oudtshoorn. Ostrich leather is a lucrative commodity, and the large feathers are used as plumes for the decoration of ceremonial headgear. Ostrich eggs and meat have been used by humans for millennia. Ostrich oil is another product that is made using ostrich fat.

Ostriches are of the genus Struthio in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, cassowaries, kiwi and the extinct elephant birds and moa.

The common ostrich was historically native to the Arabian Peninsula, and ostriches were present across Asia as far east as China and Mongolia during the Late Pleistocene and possibly into the Holocene.

Taxonomic history

The genus Struthio was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The genus was used by Linnaeus and other early taxonomists to include the emu, rhea, and cassowary, until they each were placed in their own genera. The Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) has recently become recognized as a separate species by most authorities, while others are still reviewing the evidence.

Evolution

Struthionidae is a member of the Struthioniformes, a group of paleognath birds which first appeared during the Early Eocene, and includes a variety of flightless forms which were present across the Northern Hemisphere (Europe, Asia and North America) during the Eocene epoch. The closest relatives of Struthionidae within the Struthioniformes are the Ergilornithidae, known from the late Eocene to early Pliocene of Asia. It is therefore most likely that Struthionidae originated in Asia.

The earliest fossils of the genus Struthio are from the early Miocene ~21 million years ago of Namibia in Africa, so it is proposed that genus is of African origin. By the middle to late Miocene (5–13 mya) they had spread to and become widespread across Eurasia. While the relationship of the African fossil species is comparatively straightforward, many Asian species of ostrich have been described from fragmentary remains, and their interrelationships and how they relate to the African ostriches are confusing. In India, Mongolia and China, ostriches are known to have become extinct only around, or even after, the end of the last ice age; images of ostriches have been found prehistoric Chinese pottery and petroglyphs.

Distribution and habitat

Today, ostriches are only found natively in the wild in Africa, where they occur in a range of open arid and semi-arid habitats such as savannas and the Sahel, both north and south of the equatorial forest zone. The Somali ostrich occurs in the Horn of Africa, having evolved isolated from the common ostrich by the geographic barrier of the East African Rift. In some areas, the common ostrich's Masai subspecies occurs alongside the Somali ostrich, but they are kept from interbreeding by behavioral and ecological differences. The Arabian ostriches in Asia Minor and Arabia were hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th century, and in Israel attempts to introduce North African ostriches to fill their ecological role have failed. Escaped common ostriches in Australia have established feral populations.

Species

In 2008, S. linxiaensis was transferred to the genus Orientornis. Three additional species, S. pannonicus, S. dmanisensis, and S. transcaucasicus, were transferred to the genus Pachystruthio in 2019. Several additional fossil forms are ichnotaxa (that is, classified according to the organism's trace fossils such as footprints rather than its body) and their association with those described from distinctive bones is contentious and in need of revision pending more good material.

Additional Information

Ostrich, (Struthio camelus), is a large flightless bird found only in open country in Africa. The largest living bird, an adult male may be 2.75 metres (about 9 feet) tall—almost half of its height is neck—and weigh more than 150 kg (330 pounds); the female is somewhat smaller. The ostrich’s egg, averaging about 150 mm (6 inches) in length by 125 mm (5 inches) in diameter and about 1.35 kg (3 pounds), is also the world’s largest. The male is mostly black but has white plumes in the wings and tail; females are mostly brown. The head and most of the neck, reddish to bluish in colour, is lightly downed; the legs, including the powerful thighs, are bare. The head is small, the bill short and rather wide; the big brown eyes have thick black lashes.

Ostriches are seen individually, in pairs, in small flocks, or in large aggregations, depending on the season. The ostrich relies on its strong legs—uniquely two-toed, with the main toe developed almost as a hoof—to escape its enemies, chiefly humans and the larger carnivores. A frightened ostrich can achieve a speed of 72.5 km (45 miles) per hour. If cornered, it can deliver dangerous kicks.

Ostriches live mainly on vegetation but also take some animal food, mainly insects; they can go without water for long periods. Breeding males emit lionlike roars and hisses as they fight for a harem of three to five hens. A communal nest scraped in the ground contains more than a dozen shiny, whitish eggs. The major hen of the harem may get rid of some of the eggs to make incubation more manageable. The male sits on the eggs by night; the females take turns during the day. The chicks hatch in about 40 days and when a month old can keep up with running adults. To escape detection, chicks as well as adults may lie on the ground with neck outstretched, a habit that may have given rise to the mistaken belief that the ostrich buries its head in the sand when danger threatens. Ostrich plumes adorned the helmets of medieval European knights, and in the 19th century such plumes were sold for women’s finery. This demand led to the establishment of ostrich farms in South Africa, the southern United States, Australia, and elsewhere, but the trade collapsed after World War I. Ostriches are now raised for their meat and hide, which provides a soft, fine-grained leather. The birds have been trained for saddle and sulky racing, but they tire easily and are not well suited for training. They do well in captivity and may live 50 years.

The ostrich is typical of a group of flightless birds called ratites. Ostrich populations differing slightly in skin colour, size, and egg features formerly were considered separate species, but now they are considered to be merely races of Struthio camelus. Most familiar is the North African ostrich, S. camelus camelus, ranging, in much-reduced numbers, from Morocco to Sudan. Ostriches also live in eastern and southern Africa. The Syrian ostrich (S. camelus syriacus) of Syria and Arabia became extinct in 1941. The ostrich is the only living species in the genus Struthio. Ostriches are the only members of the family Struthionidae in the order Struthioniformes—a group that also contains kiwis, emus, cassowaries, and rheas. The oldest fossil relatives of ostriches belong to the species Calciavis grandei, which were excavated from the Green River Formation in Wyoming and date to the Eocene Epoch, some 56 million to 34 million years ago.

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2234) David Baker (biochemist)

Gist:

Work

Proteins control and drive all the chemical reactions that together are the basis of life. Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. In 2003, David Baker succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Baker used computer-based methods, which he had developed. This created opportunities to develop an enormous diversity of new proteins. New proteins can be used in, for example, drugs, vaccines and materials and sensors.

Summary

David Baker (born 1962, Seattle, Washington, U.S.) is an American biochemist and computational biologist who developed computerized methods for the de novo (from scratch) design of proteins with entirely new functions. Baker’s work on protein structure prediction and design fueled advances in synthetic biology and in the development of novel drugs and proteins for industrial applications. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with English computer scientist Demis Hassabis and American researcher John M. Jumper) for his breakthroughs in computational protein design.

Education and early career

Baker grew up in Seattle. As an undergraduate, he attended Harvard University, where he studied philosophy and social science until his last year, when he transitioned to biology. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1984, he went to the University of California, Berkeley, to study biochemistry. There he carried out research on systems of protein transport in yeast. He earned a Ph.D. in 1989 and subsequently became a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, where his focus shifted to structural biology. In 1993 he joined the faculty at the University of Washington and began to more deeply investigate protein folding and the ways in which sequences of amino acids form the wide variety of protein shapes observed in cells.

Rosetta

In the early 1990s Baker’s research team employed standard approaches available for protein analysis, including mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Eventually, however, they broadened their investigations to include computer modeling, which provided critical insight into the three-dimensional shapes that result from protein folding and the relevance of these shapes to protein function. This work led to his development of Rosetta, a revolutionary computational platform for predicting and designing protein structures that is based on a Monte Carlo sampling algorithm. Rosetta allows researchers to model protein folding and to design new proteins with desired functions.

In 1998 Baker used Rosetta in a competition known as Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP), a biennial scientific experiment in which participants attempt to predict the structures of proteins from known amino acids sequences. Rosetta performed well in the competition, successfully predicting how a given sequence would fold. After a series of refinements, Baker’s team began using Rosetta in reverse, obtaining information on amino acid sequences based on a given protein structure. In this way, researchers gained the ability to design proteins according to desired shapes.

Baker’s major breakthrough came in 2003, when Rosetta was fed an entirely new protein struc­ture and computed a corresponding sequence consisting of 93 amino acids. The researchers verified Rosetta’s output by inserting the gene for the novel sequence into bacterial cells, which then produced the artificial protein, known as Top7. Top7 was the first protein to be designed and produced de novo. Baker subsequently released Rosetta’s code, making it available to other researchers. The technology has enabled Baker and others to create novel proteins with valuable functions, such as enzymes that specialize in breaking down toxic chemicals. Baker has also developed mini-proteins for therapeutic applications, including a mini-protein of about 56 amino acids capable of inhibiting SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Awards and honors

Baker has received various awards throughout his career, in addition to the Nobel Prize. In 2002 he was awarded the Overton Prize by the International Society for Computational Biology, and in 2004 he received the Feynman Prize in nanotechnology from the Foresight Institute (shared with Brian Kuhlman). In 2021 he was recognized with the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the following year received the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences (shared with Hassabis and Jumper). He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator (2000) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2006).

Details

David Baker (born October 6, 1962) is an American biochemist and computational biologist who has pioneered methods to design proteins and predict their three-dimensional structures. He is the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. He was awarded the shared 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on computational protein design.

Baker is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the director of the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design. He has co-founded more than a dozen biotechnology companies and was included in Time magazine's inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in health in 2024.

Biography:

Early life and education

Baker was born into a Jewish family in Seattle, Washington on October 6, 1962, the son of physicist Marshall Baker and geophysicist Marcia (née Bourgin) Baker. He graduated from Seattle's Garfield High School.

Baker received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in biology from Harvard University in 1984. He then joined the laboratory of Randy Schekman, where he worked primarily on protein transport and trafficking in yeast, and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. In 1993, he completed his postdoctoral training in biophysics with David Agard at the University of California, San Francisco.

Career

Baker joined the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine as a faculty member in 1993. He became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2000. Baker was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

Personal life

Baker is married to Hannele Ruohola-Baker, another biochemist at the University of Washington. They have two children.

Research

Although primarily known for the development of computational methods for predicting and designing the structures and functions of proteins, Baker maintains an active experimental biochemistry group. He has authored over 600 scientific papers.

Baker's group developed the Rosetta algorithm for ab initio protein structure prediction, which has been extended into a tool for protein design, a distributed computing project called Rosetta@home, and the computer game Foldit. Baker served as the director of the Rosetta Commons, a consortium of labs and researchers that develop biomolecular structure prediction and design software. His group has regularly competed in the CASP structure prediction competition, specializing in ab initio methods, including both manually assisted and automated variants of the Rosetta protocol. Using artificial intelligence, his group has developed later a newer version of the program known as RoseTTAFold.

Baker's group is also active in the field of protein design; they are noted for designing Top7, the first artificial protein with a novel fold.

In 2017, Baker's Institute for Protein Design received over $11 million from Open Philanthropy, followed by an additional $3 million donation in 2021.

In April 2019, Baker gave a TED talk titled "5 challenges we could solve by designing new proteins" at TED2019 in Vancouver, Canada.

Baker has co-founded several biotechnology companies, including Prospect Genomics which was acquired by an Eli Lilly subsidiary in 2001, Icosavax which was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2023, Sana Biotechnology, Lyell Immunotherapeutics, and Xaira Therapeutics.

Awards

For his work on protein folding, Baker has received numerous awards, including the Overton Prize (2002), the Sackler International Prize in Biophysics (2008), the Wiley Prize (2022) and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category "Biology and Biomedicine" (2022).

For his work on protein design, Baker has received the Newcomb Cleveland Prize (2004),  the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (2004), and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2021).

In 2024, Baker was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on protein design; the other half went to John M. Jumper and Demis Hassabis for development of AlphaFold, a program for protein structure prediction.

2381) Niagra Falls

Gist

What makes Niagara Falls a natural wonder? Statistically speaking, Niagara Falls is recognized as having the greatest flow rate of any waterfall throughout the globe. The falls have more than six million cubic feet (168,000 cubic meters) flow over the top of the falls every minute during the peak season.

Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls—American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe Falls—located on the Niagara River at the border between Ontario, Canada, and New York, USA. Known for the immense flow of water and spectacular views, the falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall globally. The site is a popular tourist attraction, a source of hydroelectric power, and home to Niagara Falls State Park, the oldest state park in the United States. 

The falls consist of the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and the much larger Horseshoe Falls.

Summary

Niagara Falls[a] is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries. It is also known as the Canadian Falls. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United States. Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York.

Formed by the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America that has a vertical drop of more than 50 m (164 ft). During peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 {m}^{3} (5.9 million cu ft) of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by flow rate. Niagara Falls is famed for its beauty and is a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Balancing recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century.

Niagara Falls is 27 km (17 mi) northwest of Buffalo, New York, and 69 km (43 mi) southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path over and through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

Details

Niagara Falls, waterfall on the Niagara River in northeastern North America, one of the continent’s most famous spectacles. The falls lie on the border between Ontario, Canada, and New York state, U.S. For many decades the falls were an attraction for honeymooners and for such stunts as walking over the falls on a tightrope or going over them in a barrel. Increasingly, however, the appeal of the site has become its beauty and uniqueness as a physical phenomenon.

The falls are in two principal parts, separated by Goat Island. The larger division, adjoining the left, or Canadian, bank, is Horseshoe Falls; its height is 188 feet (57 metres), and the length of its curving crest line is about 2,200 feet (670 metres). The American Falls, adjoining the right bank, are 190 feet (58 metres) high and 1,060 feet (320 metres) across.

The formation of the Niagara gorge (downriver) and the maintenance of the falls as a cataract depend upon peculiar geologic conditions. The rock strata from the Silurian Period (about 444 to 419 million years ago) in the Niagara gorge are nearly horizontal, dipping southward only about 20 feet per mile (almost 4 metres per km). An upper layer of hard dolomite is underlain by softer layers of shale. Water exerts hydrostatic pressure and only slowly dissolves the dolomite after infiltrating its joints. Dolomite blocks fall away as water from above infiltrates and rapidly erodes the shale at the falls itself. The disposition of the rock strata provides the conditions for keeping the water constantly falling vertically from an overhanging ledge during a long period of recession (movement upstream) of the cataract. As blocks of dolomite are undercut, they fall off and are rapidly destroyed by the falling water, further facilitating the retreat of the falls and the maintenance of a vertical cataract.

The water flowing over the falls is free of sediment, and its clearness contributes to the beauty of the cataract. In recognition of the importance of the waterfall as a great natural spectacle, the province of Ontario and the state of New York retained or acquired title to the adjacent lands and converted them into public parks.

The very large diversion of water above the falls for hydroelectric power purposes has lessened the rate of erosion. Elaborate control works upstream from the falls have maintained an even distribution of flow across both the U.S. and Canadian cataracts, thereby preserving the curtains of the waterfalls. A large part of the great river above the falls is diverted and disappears into four great tunnels for use in the power plants downstream. Because of concern over the possibility of major rockfalls, water was diverted from the American Falls in 1969, and some cementing of the bedrock was done; an extensive boring and sampling program was also carried out. River flow was returned to the American Falls in November of that year, and it was decided that safety measures for the viewing public should be implemented and that measures to stem natural processes were both too expensive and undesirable.

Excellent views of the falls are obtained from Queen Victoria Park on the Canadian side; from Prospect Point on the U.S. side at the edge of the American Falls; and from Rainbow Bridge, which spans the Niagara gorge about 1,000 feet (300 metres) downstream from Prospect Point. Visitors may cross from the U.S. shore to Goat Island by footbridge and may take an elevator to the foot of the falls and visit the Cave of the Winds behind the curtain of falling water. The Horseshoe Falls, which carry about 90 percent of the river’s discharge, receded upstream at an average rate of about 5.5 feet (1.7 metres) per year in 1842–1905. Thereafter, control works and the diversion of water decreased the erosion rate, which is presently so slow at the American Falls that large blocks of dolomite accumulate at the base of the falls, threatening to turn it into rapids.

Additional Information

Situated between the state of New York and the province of Ontario, Niagara Falls is one of the most spectacular natural wonders in North America. This series of waterfallsis on the Niagara River, which flows between the United States and Canada from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The falls are about 17 miles (27 kilometers) northwest of Buffalo, New York. The industrial city and tourist center of Niagara Falls, New York, is adjacent to the American side of the falls. Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, is across the river.

The falls are divided into two parts by Goat Island. The larger portion, on the southwest side, is the Canadian falls, known as the Horseshoe Falls. It measures 2,600 feet (790 meters) along its curve and drops 162 feet (49 meters). The smaller American Falls is northeast of Goat Island. It is 1,000 feet (305 meters) across and drops about 167 feet (51 meters). Between the American Falls and Goat Island are the small Luna Island and the small Luna, or Bridal Veil, Falls.

Just before flowing over the ledge, the American stream is only about 3 1/2 feet (1 meter) deep. The Canadian stream is about 20 feet (6 meters) deep and carries some 95 percent of the Niagara River’s water.

Every minute about 12,000,000 cubic feet (340,000 cubic meters), or 379,000 tons, of water pours in torrents over the cliffs of the falls of Niagara. As the water plunges from the brink of the falls, it fills the air with a silvery mist, which under the sunlight displays many rainbows. The plunging water also sends out a never-ending roar as it strikes the bottom. For this reason the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people called the falls Niagara, meaning “thunder of waters.”

The plunging water has worn the lower rocks away so that there are caves behind the sheets of water of both falls. Sightseers may enter the Cave of the Winds at the foot of the American Falls and get an unusual view. The Horseshoe Falls have carved a plunge basin 192 feet (59 meters) deep.

Both the United States and Canadian governments have built parks, viewing platforms, paths, and highways. The Niagara Reservation State Park was established in 1885 and is New York’s oldest state park. It includes an observation tower, elevators that descend into the gorge at the base of the American Falls, and boat trips into the waters at the base of the Horseshoe Falls.

The park area has long been a tourist site and a favorite spot for couples to spend their honeymoons. At night colored lights illuminate the falls.

Almost all the drainage from four of the Great Lakes pours over the crest of Niagara Falls. This tremendous volume of water is used to generate power in six hydroelectric plants. They develop a maximum of about 5 3/4 million horsepower, some 55 percent on the American side and about 45 percent on the Canadian. The plants draw water from the river above the falls through canals. Near each plant the water drops through penstocks to powerhouses on the Niagara River below the falls. There it turns turbine generators.

The control of Niagara Falls between the United States and Canada has long offered the world an example of international cooperation. A treaty in 1910 and later agreements fixed the amounts of water that could be diverted. An international Niagara Control Board was established in 1923.

In 1950 the two countries signed a new treaty that specified the minimum flow to be maintained over the falls. This treaty made possible greater hydroelectric development. It provides that 100,000 cubic feet (2,830 cubic meters) per second of water must flow over the falls during the tourist season in the daytime and 50,000 (1,415) at night and during the off-tourist season in the daytime. The remainder is equally divided between Canada and the United States. An average of 202,300 cubic feet (5,729 cubic meters) per second flows over the falls.

Between 1954 and 1958 the United States and Canada completed the Niagara Remedial Works Project. This enormous operation checked erosion with a gated control structure, excavations, and fills.

The Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario completed the Sir Adam Beck-Niagara Generating Station No. 1 in 1925 and No. 2 in 1958. The combined capacity of the plants is 1,443,000 kilowatts.

In 1957 the United States Congress approved the construction of the Niagara Power Project by the Power Authority of the State of New York. It has a capacity of 2,190,000 kilowatts. The first electric current from the project was delivered in 1961.

The falls of Niagara are about 25,000 years old. The hard rock (Lockport dolomite) at the brink of the falls is much older. It was made on the bed of an inland sea in the Silurian period (about 443 million to 419 million years ago). Gradually the limy sediment hardened to stone—either limestone or dolomite, a limestone with magnesium.

Later the Niagara region was raised in a widespread uplift centered in Michigan. Streams wore down the land. The layer of tough rock, however, resisted erosion. The edge of the deposit formed a great cliff—the Niagara escarpment. It runs west from Rochester, New York, between Lakes Erie and Ontario, then swings northward through the province of Ontario. It is capped by hard Niagara limestone or Lockport dolomite.

Glaciers covered the Niagara region during the Ice Age that took place during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). As the last glacier retreated, it left Lake Erie at its southern edge. Water from the lake began to spill over the Niagara escarpment into the Ontario basin below, just south of where Queenston and Lewiston now stand.

The new falls did not wear away the dolomite caprock as fast as it churned away the softer rock below. From time to time blocks of the undermined caprock broke off. The falls worked back toward Lake Erie, forming a steep-walled gorge.

Niagara’s rate of cutting has changed many times. It started slowly, for at first the river drained Lake Erie only. Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron had a northerly outlet. The drainage changed as glaciers retreated. Water from all four lakes then poured over the falls. When the river spread to the point where the famous whirlpool now is, it reached an ancient valley that had cut into the dolomite from the west. Later the valley filled with glacial debris. The river wore away the soft material, forming the 60-acre (24- hectare) basin.

Louis Hennepin, a priest who accompanied the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, was the first European to view Niagara Falls, in 1678. The site was of strategic use to the British and French in the struggle to control the Great Lakes. The British built Fort Schlosser there in 1761.