Waterfall in Masone
From Masone town centre, cross the bridge to the old town (Piazza Martini) and follow the signs to "via Cascata del Serpente" for about 1 km.
A waterfall is where a river falls from a drop or step rather than flowing along an inclined surface.
Waterfalls form along the courses of the rivers in the stretches where the type of rock is less resistant to erosion than the rock above. With the passing of time, the softer rock is eroded, creating a "hollow" and a step made of more resistant rock, thus forming a drop between the two parts. In the deeply-carved narrow valleys such as Val Masone, series of small lakes and waterfalls form due to the fracturing of the rock. The Rio Masone flows along a bed of rocks that are lithologically the same; they are serpentine schists. The different erodibility which generates the waterfall is due to the degree of fracturing. The flowing movement of the water erodes more where the rock is more fractured, thus creating the typical hollow at the base of the waterfall.
