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Morphometry of plunge pools and retreat mechanism of waterfall

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Abstract

The paper aimed to explore the morphometry of the plunge pool and retreat mechanism of the waterfalls with the help of an empirical study of Turga Waterfall of Ajodhya Hill, Purulia, West Bengal, India. To explore the morphology of waterfall and its plunge pool, width (w), average depth (d), the maximum depth (\(d_{{{\text{max}}}} )\), bathymetric study of plunge pool, and fall height or drop height \({ }(D_{{\text{h}}} ),\) the distance of jet impingement from the present headwall \({ }(X_{{\text{n}}} )\) was recorded from Turga Waterfalls. The magnitude of \(d_{{{\text{max}}}}\) and \(X_{{\text{n}}}\) is proportional to \(D_{{\text{h}}}\). The presence of a series of successive plunge pools at different elevations intermittent by step-like headwalls suggests gradual continuous vertical drilling of successive plunge pools as a more efficient waterfall retreat mechanism in the homogenous massive rock mass.

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Acknowledgements

I express my sincere gratitude to my PG students with special paper Fluvial Geomorphology (2016–18 batch) for their herculean task of field survey at Turga Waterfall. I also acknowledge Biswajit Biswas, my ex PG student (2014–16 batch), and Suman Deb Barman (Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan) for their help in drawing some figures.

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  1. Department of Geography, Krishnagar Government College, Krishnanagar, Nadia- 741101, West Bengal, India

    Balai Chandra Das

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Correspondence to Balai Chandra Das.

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Das, B.C. Morphometry of plunge pools and retreat mechanism of waterfall. Environ Earth Sci 80, 43 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09301-y

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