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50 free Iguazu Falls trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Iguazu Falls trivia quiz covers the largest waterfall system on Earth, on the border of Argentina's Misiones province and Brazil's Paraná state. The easy questions are the ones any visitor knows: what the name means, which two countries share it, what the biggest chasm is called, what Eleanor Roosevelt is supposed to have said, and which river the Iguazu drains into at the Triple Frontier. From there it moves into the geology of the basalt steps, the number of separate cataracts, which side has most of the falls, and the two national parks and their UNESCO dates. The hard end covers the record books and the surprises: the flow figures compared with Niagara and Victoria, the June 2014 record flood, the 2006 drought, the erosion rate, the engineer who first proposed protecting the falls in 1876, the conquistador who saw them in 1541, the swifts that roost behind the water, the ecological train, the flooded Guaíra Falls upstream and the films from Moonraker to The Mission that used the falls as a set. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the falls, the river, the parks and the surrounding region, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Forty-five questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Iguazu Falls lie on the border between which two countries?
Argentina and Brazil
They sit between the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná.
Q 02What does the name Iguazu mean in the Guarani language?
Big water
It combines y, meaning water, and ûasú, meaning big.
Q 03What is the name of the long, narrow chasm into which about half of the river's flow plunges?
The Devil's Throat
Garganta del Diablo in Spanish, Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese; the Argentina-Brazil border runs through it.
Q 04Which side of the border holds most of the individual falls?
Argentina, with almost 80%
Brazil has over 95% of the river basin but only about 20% of the jumps.
Q 05The falls' layout is often said to resemble which letter of the alphabet, reversed?
J
The great central chasm sits at the bend of the reversed J.
Q 06According to legend, a deity sliced the river to create the falls after a woman named Naipí fled with her mortal lover. What was his name?
Tarobá
The lovers were condemned to an eternal fall.
Q 07Which Spanish conquistador was the first European to record the falls, in 1541?
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
He had been appointed adelantado of the Río de la Plata in 1540 and marched overland to the colony's inland capital.
Q 08Cabeza de Vaca reached the falls while marching overland to which inland Spanish capital?
Asunción
He followed native trails discovered by Aleixo Garcia with 250 musketeers and 26 horses.
Q 09The falls are made of a two-step staircase formed by how many layers of basalt?
Three
The steps are 35 and 40 metres high; the rock belongs to the 1,000-metre-thick Serra Geral formation.
Q 10How long is the edge of the falls?
2.7 km
About 900 metres of that length has no water flowing over it.
Q 11Depending on water level, the number of separate waterfalls fluctuates between what?
150 and 300
Individual cataracts range from 60 to 82 metres high; a common figure is about 275.
Q 12How wide is the Garganta del Diablo canyon, the falls' great central chasm?
80-90 m
It is 70 to 80 metres deep.
Q 13The largest named falls include San Martín, Bergano, Penoni and which biblically named pair?
Adam and Eva
To the left of the great chasm, 160-200 individual falls merge into a single front in flood.
Headwater erosion is cutting the falls back at roughly what rate?
Q 21Which cataract, once among the highest-flow on Earth, was drowned in 1982 by the Itaipu reservoir, moving Iguazu up the rankings?
Guaíra
Thousands flocked to see them before the dam's lake covered them forever.
Q 22Below the falls, the Iguazu River drains into which major river, South America's second-longest?
Paraná
The confluence marks the Triple Frontier of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Q 23The Iguazu River rises in the Serra do Mar near which Brazilian city?
Curitiba
It flows 1,205 km west through Paraná state before forming the border with Argentina.
1.4-2.1 cm per year
The shape is controlled by 8-10 metres of highly resistant vesicular basalt at the top of each rock sequence.
Q 15What did US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaim on seeing Iguazu?
"Poor Niagara!"
Niagara, at about 50 metres, is a third shorter.
Q 16Iguazu is wider than Victoria Falls, but Victoria holds which record?
The largest single curtain of water
Victoria's curtain is more than 1,600 metres wide and over 100 metres high; Iguazu is split into roughly 275 falls.
Q 17What is Iguazu's average annual flow rate?
1,746 m3/s
That ranks sixth among the world's waterfalls, just behind Niagara's 2,400.
Q 18The maximum recorded flow at Iguazu, 45,700 cubic metres per second, was measured on 9 June of which year?
2014
That is more than five times Niagara's record of 8,300.
Q 19During a severe drought in 2006, the flow over the falls shrank to roughly what?
300 m3/s
Dry spells normally last only a few weeks; this one ran until early December.
Q 20The greatest volume of water usually flows over the falls in which months?
December to February
That coincides with one of the region's periods of heaviest rainfall; the climate is humid subtropical.
Q 24How long is the Iguazu River?
1,320 km
Its drainage basin covers 62,000 square kilometres and about 70% of its roughly 100 fish species are endemic.
Q 25Why are large migratory fish, common elsewhere in the Paraná basin, naturally absent from the upper Iguazu?
The cataracts cut the river in two
About 70% of the river's fish are endemic, largely thanks to that isolation.
Q 26The Argentine Iguazú National Park was created in which year?
1934
Its Brazilian counterpart followed by federal decree in January 1939.
Q 27The Argentine and Brazilian parks were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in which two years respectively?
1984 and 1986
Both parks form part of a proposed Trinational Biodiversity Corridor with Paraguay.
Q 28Which Brazilian engineer first campaigned to preserve the falls in 1876, when Yellowstone was only four years old?
André Rebouças
He wrote of a place "created by God", from "the beautiful to the sublime".
Q 29Which activity, offered on the Brazilian side, is prohibited on the other side because of its impact on wildlife?
Helicopter tours
Inflatable boats instead take visitors right up to the falls on that side.
Q 30Visitors on the Argentine side reach the falls by which means of transport?
A rainforest ecological train
The propane-fired train runs 7 km from the visitors' centre to the station at the great chasm.