The Cascate del Varone (Varone Waterfalls) are pair of

waterfall A waterfall is a 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 severa ...

s that fall into a

vertical cave A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit (in the US) and pothole or pot (in the UK); jama in South Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric ...

located 3

kilometers The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

north-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east ...

of the northern end of

Lake Garda Lake Garda ( it, Lago di Garda or ; lmo, label= Eastern Lombard, Lach de Garda; vec, Ƚago de Garda; la, Benacus; grc, Βήνακος) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, about halfway between ...

and the city of

Riva del Garda Riva del Garda (''Rìva'' in local dialect) is a town and ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Trento of the Trentino Alto Adige region. It is also known simply as ''Riva'' and is located at the northern tip of Lake Garda. History Ri ...

in northern Italy. The name Varone has its origin from the town of Varone a short distance away.

The formation of the falls

During the

Quaternary period The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

the great Garda

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

retreated. Its slow course scooped and flattened the area now known as the Lower Cerca Valley and Lake Garda. After the glacier retreated completely, the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

s could flow towards Lake Garda without interruption, continuing with greater force the work of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

that the glacier had begun. The water flowed to the place where the entrance to the

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

stands today, before the channel was created. For a period of about 20,000 years and more, the water steadily eroded, along with the load of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

, pebbles and gravel, the bedrock (hard

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

from the

Jurassic period The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

). Furthermore, while the erosion was slow at first, once the first

fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure ...

was carved, the quarrying effect became increasingly efficient and rapid, as it tended to concentrate on this line of weakness of the crack in the rock. On such hard rock, the erosion took the form of deep, narrow cuts. The erosion work continues even today and the water wears away the rock at a rate of two

millimeters 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The microwave is between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. The millimetre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, ...

per

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

. The fall track therefore gradually moves back upstream towards the mountain as part of the

headward erosion Headward erosion is erosion at the origin of a stream channel, which causes the origin to move back away from the direction of the stream flow, lengthening the stream channel.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak It can also refer to ...

. As a result the

eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid b ...

also move deeper into the channel. Varone Cave is an example of a backwash waterfall. This means that the phenomenon of drifting on the surface of the rock behind the waterfall causes the waterfall to constantly retreat. Over the thousands of years, large, unstable slabs of rock, stones and piles of detritus were sometimes detached and washed forward, causing and still causing the current design of the channel. Today the river penetrates into the cave in the mountain and the waterfall drops a total of 98 meters down the channel.

Geography

The falls are fed by the waters of the Magnone River, which originates in the nearby Lake Tenno, which is north-northwest of the falls. The lake is at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 550 meters above sea level, while Lake Garda into which the river flows is located at an altitude of only 70 meters. The waterfalls are at an intermediate height of about 200 meters above sea level, that is, over 350 meters below Lake Tenno. The waters of the lake leak into its rocky infrastructure - a typical phenomenon in a Karst environment for natural water reservoirs that lack

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic condition ...

on the surface. This water rises to the surface several kilometers south of the lake, forming the Magnone River which falls into the Varona Cave and forms the Varone Falls on their way to Lake Garda.

The tourism site

The falls were not accessible to the general public until the inauguration of a regulated

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

site on the spot. There were only steep cliffs in the place and the waterfall was only accessible to climbers up the waterfall itself, or to those who dangled using

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similar ...

s, an action that only experienced

mountaineers Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbin ...

felt safe enough to do. In the middle of the 19th century, the development of the place began with the aim of making them accessible to the public. The tourist site at Varona Falls was inaugurated with great pomp on June 20, 1874. The guest of honor at the ceremony was Prince Nikola of Montenegro, who happened to be by the lake at that time. Since then, the falls have been an attraction for every visitor to the northern area of Lake Garda, and have been the destination of many celebrities: Names of artists and writers appearing in the visitors books include Prince Umberto II of Savoy, Gabriele D'Annunzio, the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Franz Joseph I of Habsburg,

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

and many others. Thomas Mann often visited Riva del Garda between

1901 Events January * January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minist ...

and

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library syst ...

, apparently drawing inspiration for some sections of his novel ''

The Magic Mountain ''The Magic Mountain'' (german: Der Zauberberg, links=no, ) is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in German in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth-century German literature. Mann s ...

'' from the falls, for example the phrase "The water pours down with a deafening noise at the back of the deep, narrow chasm formed by paunchy, bare, slippery rocks that resemble huge fish bellies." Today the place is highly developed, with a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

on the way to it, and a convenient tourist road, which allows access to an upper observation on the upper waterfall, and a lower observation on the lower waterfall.

References

* {{Official website, http://www.cascata-varone.com Geography of Trentino Waterfalls of Italy