Iguazu: The falls on the Brazil border are flowing at near-record rates

Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil rank among the world's most spectacular natural sights – and right now they are even more powerful than usual. After a rain-soaked October in Brazil, nearly 12 million liters of water per second poured over the falls on one day, about 10 times the normal flow, U.S. broadcaster NPR reported on Oct. 22, 2026. The reddish, muddy water reached the underside of the narrow metal catwalks that in normal years run just a few feet above the falls. Scientists link the rains to this year's “Super El Niño”.

Argentina's park administration had already restricted access on Oct. 12, when the river carried more than 12,000 cubic meters per second. After a brief reopening on Oct. 13, the upper and lower circuits were closed again on Oct. 14, the website Travel Tomorrow reported; the safety threshold is 11,000 cubic meters per second. The walkway to the "Garganta del Diablo" (Devil's Throat) had been dismantled as a precaution in August. "It just keeps raining," NPR quoted the national park’s director as saying. The visitor center and jungle train remained open, according to Travel Tomorrow.

The system of hundreds of individual falls stretches along a semicircular basalt rim about 2.7 kilometers wide, according to UNESCO, with drops of up to about 80 meters. Argentina's Iguazú National Park has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984 and Brazil's Iguaçu National Park since 1986. Together they protect about 240,000 hectares of Atlantic Forest with more than 2,000 vascular plant species, around 400 bird species, and tapirs, ocelots and jaguars.