Ecuador's largest waterfall at 490ft disappears

A picture of what the San Rafael waterfall looked like in 2012 (Picture: Shutterstock)

A large cascade of water that made up Ecuador's tallest waterfall has disappeared after a sinkhole swallowed part of its water source.

According to NASA, the San Rafael Waterfall on the Coca River stopped flowing on February 2 and has been replaced by three streams.

All tourism to the site has been closed and it no longer appears on the country's travel website.

With water dropping 490ft, the waterfall attracts tens of thousands of tourists per year, NASA said.

NASA Earth Observatory images using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey: August 4, 2014 - March 13, 2020 (NASA)

A huge sinkhole is said to have appeared in the Coca River a few metres before the falls and diverted the watercourse.

This replaced the waterfall with three separate streams.

Geologists are currently investigating the sinkhole. Some think the deformation occurred naturally while other researchers believe it was tied to the construction of Ecuador's largest hydroelectric plant.

Construction on the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam started in 2010 and finished in 2016.

According to NASA, Ecuador's tourism ministry does not plan to reconstruct the riverbed or restore San Rafael and the waterfall is now part of history.