Free Republic

The winter's deep freeze has transformed Niagara Falls into an icy spectacle, encasing the trees around it into crystal shells — a sight that's drawing tourists. The Niagara River keeps flowing below the ice cover, so the falls aren't totally frozen over. But the massive ice buildup near the brink has become a tourist magnet for the second straight year after several relatively mild winters. READ MORE: Daredevil Will Gadd climbs Niagara's Horseshoe Falls ice wallREAD MORE: 2 people rescued from disabled boat near brink of Niagara Falls Visitors have been flocking to Niagara Falls State Park, next to the American...

The Mediterranean Sea as we know it today formed about 5.3 million years ago when Atlantic Ocean waters breached the strait of Gibraltar, sending a massive flood into the basin. Geologists have long known that the Mediterranean became isolated from the world's oceans around 5.6 million years ago, evaporating almost completely in the hundreds of thousands of years that followed. Scientists also largely agree that the Mediterranean basin was refilled when the movements of Earth's crustal plates caused the ground around the Gibraltar Strait to subside, allowing the ocean waters of the Atlantic to cut through the rock separating the...

Niagara Falls Park Police say a person has survived after going over the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.Radio station WBEN-AM says police reported that the person survived the 180-feet plunge. The Buffalo News says rescuers were in the Niagara River below the falls on Wednesday afternoon. No other details were available.

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - A 48-year-old man was rescued from the brink of Niagara Falls after spending two hours on a cliff, knee-deep in icy water. "Hold me! Don't let me go!" he cried out to rescuers during his ordeal Wednesday. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital suffering from severe hypothermia, and was in stable condition Thursday. The man jumped or fell off Goat Island, sliding down an icy slope on the small island on the American side of the falls. He ended up 20 feet from shore and five feet from the...