Keyhole Falls is the unofficial name for the largest
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 several wa ...
along the
Lillooet River
The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...
in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. The falls are high and are a punchbowl type 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 several wa ...
.
It is called Keyhole Falls because it resembles a giant old-fashioned
keyhole
A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or passw ...
.
Formation
Keyhole Falls was formed when the Lillooet River was dammed with
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
from a
Plinian eruption at the
Mount Meager massif
The Mount Meager massif is a group of volcanic peaks in the of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc of western North America, it is located north of Vancouver at the northern end of the ...
about 2350 years ago. The thick breccia soon eroded from water activity, forming Keyhole Falls. There was a massive
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
when the water first broke through the breccia. The flood was big enough that small house-sized blocks of breccia were carried away during the flood.
Catalogue of Canadian Volcanoes: Mount Meager
Access
There are no developed trails leading to any clear view of the falls. Due to how undercut the cliff is, one cannot see the falls by looking down into the canyon from the cliff's edge.[
]
See also
*List of waterfalls of British Columbia
The following list of waterfalls of British Columbia include all waterfalls of superlative significance.
Tallest waterfalls
By overall height
, there are 36 confirmed waterfalls with an overall height of at least .
By tallest single drop
, th ...
References
Waterfalls of British Columbia
Pemberton Valley
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