The Trou de Fer ("Iron Hole") is a canyon on

Reunion Island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, ...

, off the coast of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

. The primary river flowing through the gorge, which is up to deep, is the Bras de Caverne River, a tributary of the Rivière du Mât. The canyon has two distinct parts: a large crater, which is fed by six prominent waterfalls, and a narrow

slot canyon A slot canyon is a long, narrow channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock. A slot canyon has depth-to-width ratios that typically exceed 10:1 over most of its length and ...

at its outlet, which constitutes most of the canyon's length. The canyon starts at the waterfall of the Bras Mazerine stream and after some 1.4 - 1.8 km from the left side joins the main Bras de Caverne stream. The Bras de Caverne River enters the canyon with a waterfall about high. This drop is usually dry or has very little water, but between that and the next, drop, springs feed the river, which drops over this then drops over a final undercut cliff into the Trou de Fer in a narrow plume of water. Trou-de-Fer

Directly to the left of this waterfall, another stream drops over the cliff, which is undercut to an extent that its lip has over of empty space between it and the canyon floor, of approximately the same height in two channels, and slams onto a ledge before emptying into the same pool as the Bras de Caverne waterfall. This waterfall is not as high, and has a smaller water flow. It is fed by several other falls streaming off the cliffs above it. Further to the left, at about twice the distance from the first falls to the second, another large stream plunges into the canyon. In total, there are at least six waterfalls feeding the canyon. At the base of the canyon, a separate

, or "The Narrows", begins. The water from the Bras de Caverne waterfall and the waterfall to its left drain into the slot canyon at a 90-degree angle, through a waterfall known informally as the "Washing Machine". The name stems from the mist it generates, which drenches people who stand near the base of the falls. The slot canyon, or "The Corridor", extends for about , and is said to be commonly dammed up by debris jams to form lakes, including the "Lake of the Eel". Many springs flow through the porous volcanic rock of the walls, creating countless waterfalls. The team of Pascale Lapoule, Laurent Broisin and Pascal Colas were the first to climb/walk the canyon on 19–21 September 1989.

References

{{Coord, 21, 2, 25, S, 55, 33, 25, E, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Canyons and gorges of France Landforms of Réunion Waterfalls of Réunion Réunion National Park

See also

References