Headcuts are characterized by:

• a waterfall or abrupt change in slope of a streambed;
• a fragile, cracked, or crumbling lip of the falls;
• a bowl-shaped pool at the base of the fall (called a plunge pool);
• undercutting;
• rapid headward (that is, upstream) erosion during flood flows; followed by
• drying, cracking, and sloughing during low-flow or no-flow periods.