EART 2 Lecture 24: Human Induced Catastrophes
Document Summary
1853 70 foot high earthen dam built, part of the pennsylvania canal project. 1957 dam sold to fishing club, fish grating installed. 3:15 a. m. may 31, overtops dam, washed out. 30-40 foot wave don valley to johnstown. 2200 drown - worst u. s. flood loss. 1960 - build dam in glacial valley. Plave river, drains to adriatic north of venice. Did not inspect geology of surrounding hillsides of lake they were damming weak, dipping surfaces, destabilizes, causes landslide. 10:41 pm slide begins, 240 million m3 slides down bedding surface. Worst human dam disaster - 100 m wave overtops dam: hits town of longarone and san. 1000 dead in san martino, 2000 dead in longarone. Yellow river flooded 1500 times in last 2500 years. 1937 japanese invading, chiang kai-shek backing up west of kaifeng. To slow japanese, blew mile gap in levee river cut across yangtze and slowed. But, flooded 21,000 sq miles of farmland.
