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Siri Waterfall, formerly called Santa Maria Waterfall, is a 120-metre-high (390 ft) waterfall located about 3 km inland from the eastern coast of the island of Gaua in northern Vanuatu.
The supply of water to the waterfall is from Lake Letas. This lake is a large freshwater lake located in the crater at the centre of the volcanic island, about 600 meters above sea level. Water flows from the lake 3 km east to the top of Siri Waterfall. After the waterfall, the water flows as a large stream, called Bē Solomul River (formerly Namang), for another 3 km before it reaches the sea. The large stream is known as "Big Water".
A rough estimate of the water flow rate (during the dry season month of August 2006) was approximately 5 cubic metres per second.
Name
The name siri [siˈri] means ‘waterfall’ in the local Nume language. It is cognate with Vurës sēriv [seˈriɸ], Mwotlap na-syip [naˈsjip], Mota siriv [siriɸ], Dorig sriv [ˈsriβ], Olrat siriv [siˈriβ], Lakon hiriv [hiˈriβ], and Mwerlap siriw [siˈriw]. All of these terms can be derived from Proto-Torres–Banks *siriβi ‘waterfall’.
References
- See p.499 of: François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of the vowels of seventeen northern Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034, S2CID 131668754.
14°16′39″S 167°33′58″E / 14.2774°S 167.566°E / -14.2774; 167.566
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