QUICK FACTS

Name: Denmark Strait cataract

Location: Denmark Strait

Why it's incredible: The cataract is the world's biggest waterfall, taller even than Angel Falls.

The Denmark Strait cataract is a submarine waterfall in the ocean channel between Iceland and Greenland. It is technically the world's largest waterfall, with waters plunging 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) down a slope from the top of the cataract to its bottom.

The waterfall itself is about 6,600 feet (2,000 m) tall, because it lands in a deep pool of cold water that spans the remainder of the slope. That's still double the height of Angel Falls — the tallest waterfall on land — even if the Denmark Strait cataract doesn't look as dramatic as the landmark in Venezuela.

The cataract is as wide as the Denmark Strait, roughly 300 miles (480 kilometers) across, and the seabed drops off over a length of 310 to 370 miles (500 to 600 km). "If we visualize it, it looks like a relatively low-gradient slope," Mike Clare, leader of marine geosystems at the U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, previously told Live Science.