[Clusterfucker]

Side-by-side waterfalls send half of a river on its merry way to Lake Superior. But the other half? No one's been able to figure it out.
If you’ve ever worried that we’ve solved all the mysteries of nature, fear not. Minnesota’s Devil’s Kettle Falls has been puzzling hikers and geologists for generations. At the falls, along Lake Superior’s north shore, a river forks at a rock outcropping. While one side tumbles down a two-step stone embankment and continues on like a normal waterfall, the other side vanishes into a deep hole and disappears — apparently forever.

A few miles south of the U.S.-Canadian border, the Brule River flows through Minnesota’s Judge C. R. Magney State Park, where it drops 800 feet in an 8-mile span, creating several waterfalls. A mile and a half north of the shore of Lake Superior, a thick knuckle of rhyolite rock juts out, dividing the river dramatically at the crest of the falls. To the east, a traditional waterfall carves a downward path, but to the west, a geological conundrum awaits visitors. A giant pothole, the Devil’s Kettle, swallows half of the Brule and no one has any idea where it goes. The consensus is that there must be an exit point somewhere beneath Lake Superior, but over the years, researchers and the curious have poured dye, pingpong balls, even logs into the kettle, then watched the lake for any sign of them. So far, none has ever been found.

And this baffling situation only gets weirder when geologists start explaining Devil’s Kettle. Consider, for instance, the sheer quantity of water pouring into the kettle every minute of every day. While the notion of some kind of broad, underground river is an exciting device in movies, the reality is that those sorts of deep caves are rare, and only form in soft rock types like limestone. Northern Minnesota, as geologists will tell you, is built of stronger stuff.

In harder rocks like the local rhyolite and basalts, tectonic action can sometimes crush underground rock layers, creating a much more permeable environment for water. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence of a fault line in the area, and even if there were, it’s unlikely that the kettle could continue draining the Brule indefinitely. Storms and erosion send debris, sometimes as large as boulders and trees, over the falls and into the kettle — if the drainage route was, in effect, an underground gravel bed, at some point it would clog.

Another idea is that millions of years ago, a hollow lava tube may have formed beneath the falls, in the subsurface layer of basalt. Over time, the theory posits, the falling water eroded the rhyolite surface and punched straight down into the ancient lava tube, providing wide open access to the floor of Lake Superior. Again, there are problems with this theory, primarily that the local basalt is a type known as flood basalt, which spreads out as a flat sheet when ancient lava bubbled up from fissures in the ground. Lava tubes form in basalt flowing down the slopes of volcanoes, and even if the geology in northern Minnesota had somehow created an exception to that rule, no lava tubes have ever been found in any of the hundreds of exposed basalt beds in the area.

So where does the water go? So far, nobody knows — but not for lack of trying. Scientists and hikers will keep tossing things into the Devil’s Kettle and watching Lake Superior for any sign of their trinkets, but maybe there are other explanations. If you happen to be traveling, say, somewhere in Eurasia and stumble across a geyser that’s surrounded by pingpong balls, logs, and even a car that locals are reported to have pushed in one night years ago, you might want to call a geologist in Minnesota. You may just have solved the mystery of Devil’s Kettle Falls.

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tou...s-kettle-falls

[Dynamo47]

That's pretty cool. I am surprised with technology that some spelunkers wouldn't have gone into the cave entrance and started to map the interior passages.

[Blewvane]

Well as you can clearly see from the second youtube vid there is quite obviously some gigantic insect in there guarding the entrance.

[Clusterfucker]

Originally Posted by Blewvane ↗

Well as you can clearly see from the second youtube vid there is quite obviously some gigantic insect in there guarding the entrance.

Mystery solved. It is probably pissed off after eating all those ping pong balls.

[Blewvane]

Yeah and i suppose having a car dropped on it as well didn't improve its mood any either.

[kellyhound]

interesting there are more waterfalls like this that disappear into the unknown.
Toss in a gps receiver with a radio beacon and when it submerges somewhere in the open they should be able to pick up the signal.

[TetraHedral]

just throw a receiver like the ones they use on sharks to track their swimming paths and vualah! mystery solved!

[p4irs]

how about like a tiny tablet of GPS?

[candice81]

boggles my mind that they cant figure out what is in there....send a group from DR and we will take care of it.

[deanmine]

As the Brule River enters the Northern Light Lake and continues its way into Lake Superior one of the most mysterious phenomena on Earth is working its magic. It is known as the Devil’s Kettle Falls, and it attracts curious tourists, geologists and hikers from all over the world.

Just north of the shore of Lake Superior, an enormous piece of rock juts out and splits the Brule River into two smaller rivers. The east river continues its way to Lake Superior, and the other one (the west), falls into a wide hole and vanishes forever.

The general assumption was that there must be an exit point somewhere beneath Lake Superior, but huge amounts of dye, logs, ping pong balls, and even a car (according to one story, though I’ve been there myself and can’t imagine how they could get a car up there) have been thrown inside the Devil’s Kettle to never be seen again.

This weird phenomenon gets even weirder. Considering the huge amounts of water pouring into the Devil’s Kettle every second, the idea of an underground broad river is pretty exciting; however, deep underground caves like these can only form in soft rock like limestone, and as every geologist can tell you, Northern Minnesota isn’t built of soft rocks.



In regions like Northern Minnesota, where the local rocks are rhyolite and basalt, tectonic action will sometimes crush underground rock layers, which is why the environment for water is permeable. Still, there is no evidence of a fault line there, and even if there were, the Devil can’t drink from the Brule River forever! Much debris is sent down the crevice by storms and erosion, sometimes as large as boulders and trees, so if the Kettle was an underground gravel bed, it would have clogged at some point. Some explain the disappearance of the objects in the Kettle by saying that there is a ‘pocket’ inside and that the objects stay trapped there. Still, so much stuff has been thrown in there (imagine every single tourist throwing something inside) that it probably would have clogged anyway.


Another hypothesis is that a lava tube formed under the falls millions of years ago in the subsurface layer of basalt. Lava tubes can be found in Hawaii as new basalt is created there by the islands’ volcanoes. According to this theory, over time, the pounding water of the waterfall eroded the rhyolite surface, opened the ancient lava tube, and flowed into it, which would ultimately provide access to Lake Superior’s floor. This theory is still problematic. The problem is that the rock composing the Devil’s Kettle is rhyolite, and lava tubes NEVER form in rhyolite, according to geologist John C. Green.Still, geologists confirmed that the rock in that particular area alternates between layers of basalt and rhyolite, so maybe the lava tube is located in a layer of basalt, right? Unfortunately, no. The type of the local basalt is ‘flood basalt’. Flood basalt spreads out in flat sheets when ancient lava bubbles from fissures in the ground, and lava tubes only form in basalt flowing down the slope of the volcano, and yes, the geology in northern Minnesota somehow made exceptions to that rule, but still, no lava tubes has been found in the hundreds of exposed lava beds in that area.

So you see, no one knows where the water goes. And we can’t just throw in a waterproof GPS. GPS (Global Positioning System) is a network of about thirty satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 20,000 km (about 12,427 miles). The original purpose of the system was for military navigation, but nowadays pretty much any device can receive the radio signals those satellites broadcast.

However, GPS devices generally only work on the surface. Another question: Why don’t we just drop a pack of scientists down there? In case you forgot, it’s 244 meters (800 feet) deep, and the water KEEPS going down there. So no, we can’t put people in there. Pressure, temperature, and many other factors make it impossible to do. Another idea: Why don’t we just drop in some camera that records? 1. It will break because of shocks 2. If it doesn’t break, at some point, water will get in it anyway, even if it’s the king of waterproofs. 3. The transmissions of the camera will be blocked by the rock. 4. It will be close to impossible to get somewhere with a camera and a long cable as the cable will get stuck everywhere (we aren’t trying to have everything wireless for no reason).Long story short, scientists tried everything: huge amounts of dye paint, ping pong balls, logs, and tourists leave their trace by throwing things inside too, but nothing was ever found. There just isn’t an answer to this mystery (yet). So if one day you get lost in a forest somewhere and find plenty of dye, ping pong balls, cameras and maybe a GPS or two, you should call a geologist right away to share the good news!