Dam failure

Catastrophic failure of dam barrier by uncontrolled release of water

"Dam burst" redirects here. For the argument type or fallacy, see Slippery slope.

The reservoir emptying through the failed Teton Dam Ruins of the dam of Vega de Tera (Spain) after breaking in 1959

A dam failure or dam burst is a catastrophic type of structural failure characterized by the sudden, rapid, and uncontrolled release of impounded water or the likelihood of such an uncontrolled release.[1] Between the years 2000 and 2009 more than 200 notable dam failures happened worldwide.[2]

A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, that directs or slows down the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundments. Most dams have a section called a spillway or weir over or through which water flows, either intermittently or continuously, and some have hydroelectric power generation systems installed.

Dams are considered "installations containing dangerous forces" under international humanitarian law due to the massive impact of a possible destruction on the civilian population and the environment. Dam failures are comparatively rare, but can cause immense damage and loss of life when they occur. In 1975 the failure of the Banqiao Reservoir Dam and other dams in Henan Province, China caused more casualties than any other dam failure in history. The disaster killed an estimated 171,000 people[3] and 11 million people lost their homes.

## Main causes of dam failures

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International special sign for works and installations containing dangerous forces

Common causes of dam failure include:

* Sub-standard construction materials/techniques (Gleno Dam)
* Spillway design error (near failure of Glen Canyon Dam, Walnut Grove Dam[4])
* Lowering of dam crest height, which reduces spillway flow (South Fork Dam[5])
* Geological instability caused by changes to water levels during filling or poor surveying (Malpasset Dam).
* Sliding of a mountain into the reservoir (Vajont Dam – not a dam failure, but caused nearly the entire volume of the reservoir to be displaced and overtop the dam)
* Poor maintenance, especially of outlet pipes (Lawn Lake Dam, Val di Stava dam collapse)[6]
* Extreme inflow (Shakidor Dam)
* Human, computer or design error (Buffalo Creek Flood, Dale Dike Reservoir, Taum Sauk pumped storage plant)
* Internal erosion or piping, especially in earthen dams (Teton Dam)
* Earthquakes
* Climate-driven landscape instability (Rock-ice avalanches, Permafrost landslides, Debris flows, Outburst floods from glacial lakes and landslide-dammed lakes)[7]

### Deliberate breaching

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A notable case of deliberate dam breaching was the British Royal Air Force Dambusters raid on Germany in World War II (codenamed "Operation Chastise"), in which six German dams were selected to be breached in order to impact German infrastructure and manufacturing and power capabilities deriving from the Ruhr and Eder rivers. This raid later became the basis for several films.

Attacks on dams were restricted in Article 56 of the 1977 Protocol I amendment to the Geneva Conventions. Dams may not be lawfully attacked "if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population", unless "it is used for other than its normal function and in regular, significant and direct support of military operations and if such attack is the only feasible way to terminate such support". Similar provisions apply to other sources of "dangerous forces", such as nuclear power plants.[8]

Other cases include the Chinese bombing of multiple dams during Typhoon Nina (1975) in an attempt to drain them before their reservoirs overflowed. The typhoon produced what is now considered a 1-in-2,000-year flood, which few if any of these dams were designed to survive.

The Kakhovka Dam was destroyed in June 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

## List of major dam failures

[edit]

See also: List of tailings dam failures and List of flash floods

Dam/incident  | Date  | Location  | Country  | Fatalities  | Details

|
|
|
|
|

Marib Dam | 575  | Sheba | Yemen  | Un­known  | Unknown causes, possibly neglect. The consequent failure of the irrigation system provoked the migration of up to 50,000 people from Yemen.
Subiaco Dam | 1305  | Subiaco | Italy  | Un­known  | Amateur attempt to lower the dam
Döda fallet/1796 Ragunda lake burst disaster  | 1796  | Jämtland | Sweden  | 0  | Natural dam of glacial till had canal dug through it for purposes of navigation. As the till was hard to dig, water was used to erode the channel. The canal led to the failure of the dam.
Puentes Dam  | 1802  | Lorca | Spain  | 608  | 1,800 houses and 40,000 trees destroyed.[9]
Hogs Back Dam | 1829-04-03  | Ottawa | Upper Canada  | Un­known  | Inexperience with cold weather engineering allowed for a small leak in wall to form on March 28 and the dam to slump on April 2. The following day, on April 3, the dam failed and washed away down the Rideau River. A new dam of a different design was built atop the foundation of the original later that same year.[10]
Bilberry reservoir | 1852-02-05  | Holme Valley | United Kingdom  | 81  | Failed in a heavy rain. Inquest found construction was culpably negligent.
Dale Dike Reservoir/Great Sheffield Flood | 1864-03-11  | South Yorkshire | United Kingdom  | 244  | Defective design and construction. Small leak in wall grew until new dam failed. More than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed. Led to regulation.
Iruka Lake Dam | 1868  | Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture
(then Owari Province)  | Japan  | 941  | Under the influence of heavy rain from late April, this soil dam collapsed on May 13. Water accumulated in Lake Iruka overflowed downstream, causing severe damage to Inuyama, Iwakura, Kasugai, Tsushima Yatomi, and to Komaki. Eight hundred and seven houses were destroyed, with another 11,709 flooded.
Mill River Dam  | 1874  | Williamsburg, Massachusetts | United States  | 139  | Lax regulations and cost cutting led to an insufficient design, which fell apart when the reservoir was full. Six hundred million gallons of water were released, wiping out 4 towns and making national headlines. This dam break led to increased regulation of dam construction.
South Fork Dam/Johnstown flood | 1889-05-31  | Johnstown, Pennsylvania | United States  | 2 208  | Blamed on poor maintenance by owners, who lowered crest by a meter or more;[5] court deemed it an "Act of God". Followed exceptionally heavy rainfall. Sixteen hundred homes were destroyed.
Walnut Grove Dam | 1890  | Wickenburg, Arizona | United States  | 100+  | A drunkard's negligence, shoddy construction, and corporate mismanagement killed as many as 150 after a routine flood exceeded the dam's design capacity.[11][4]
Gohna Lake dam | 1894-08-25  | Garhwal | British India | 1  | Failure of a landslide dam. Authorities had been able to evacuate the valley.
Austin Dam | 1900-04-07  | Austin, Texas | United States  | 8  | In an extreme current, two 250-foot sections of the dam slid about 20 m downstream intact. The town was left without electrical power for months.
Hauser Dam | 1908-04-14  | Helena, Montana | United States  | 0  | Heavy flooding coupled with poor foundation quality. Workers managed to warn people downstream.
Broken Down Dam | 1908-09-24  | Fergus Falls, Minnesota | United States  | 0  | Design flaw; dam built on water springs. Four downstream dams and bridge destroyed; a fourth dam was opened and saved. Mills, homes and farms flooded. No fatalities.
Austin Dam | 1911-09-11  | Austin, Pennsylvania | United States  | 78  | Poor design, use of dynamite to remedy structural problems. Destroyed paper mill and much of the town of Austin. Replacement failed in 1942.
Desná Dam | 1916  | Desná | Austria-Hungary | 65  | Construction flaws caused the dam failure.
Lower Otay Dam | 1916  | San Diego County, California | United States  | 14  | Over-topped from flooding following heavy rains. Locally, blame was placed on Charles Hatfield who had been contracted by the City of San Diego for his efforts in rainmaking. Court cases following the dam's failure resulted in neither liabilities being passed to Mr. Hatfield nor the original payment, as both of the court's decisions ruled the event 'an act of God'.
Sweetwater Dam | 1916-01-27  | San Diego County, California | United States  | 0  | Over-topped from flooding; spillway inadequate, water rose over a meter higher than the dam and waterfalled over its surface. Dam had been raised after a similar earlier overtopping. Partial failure.
Lake Toxaway Dam  | 1916-08-13  | Transylvania County, North Carolina | United States  | 0  | Heavy rains and lack of water-level controls caused the dam to give way. Private lake destroyed, resort area failed. Dam was later rebuilt in the 1960s.
Tigra Dam | 1917-08-19  | Gwalior | British India  | 1 000  | Failed due to water infiltrating through sandstone foundation. Possibly more fatalities.
Gleno Dam | 1923-12-01  | Province of Bergamo | Italy  | 356  | Poor construction and design, inferior materials. Lasted 40 days.
Llyn Eigiau dam and Coedty reservoir | 1925-11-02  | Dolgarrog | United Kingdom  | 17  | The outflow from Llyn Eigiau destroyed Coedty reservoir. Contractor blamed cost-cutting in construction. Twenty-five inches of rain had fallen in preceding 5 days.
St. Francis Dam | 1928-03-12  | Santa Clarita, California | United States  | 431+  | Geological instability of east canyon wall. Possibly many more unreported casualties due to unknown, large numbers of undocumented migrant workers in farmland below.
Castlewood Dam | 1933  | Franktown, Colorado | United States  | 2  | Bad design and maintenance, with proximate cause of heavy rain. Dam failed at 1 am on 3 August 1933, with dam waters just 15 miles from the City of Denver. Warnings to the city by 4 am allowed most people to move out of the way of the flood waters.[12][13][14]
Granadillar Dam | 1934  | Canary Islands | Spain  | 8  | Bad design and foundation
Secondary Dam of Sella Zerbino  | 1935  | Molare | Italy  | 111  | Geological unstable base combined with flood.
Horonai Dam  | 1941  | Ōmu, Hokkaido | Japan  | 60  | A torrential rain struck around Horonai River area. This is the dam collapse in the wake, and according to official confirmed, the lost houses reached to 32.
Zaporizhzhya Dam  | 1941  | Zaporizhzhya | Soviet Union  | 20-100.000  | Stalin's secret police sabotaged the Zaporizhzhya dam to halt the nazi advance into the Soviet Union.
Nant-y-Gro dam | 1942  | Elan Valley | United Kingdom  | 0  | Destroyed deliberately with explosive charge during testing and preparation for Operation Chastise in World War II.
Edersee Dam | 1943-05-17  | Hesse | Germany  | 70  | Destroyed by bombing during Operation Chastise in World War II. Widespread destruction.
Möhne Dam | 1943-05-17  | Ruhr | Germany  | 1 579  | Destroyed by bombing during Operation Chastise in World War II. Eleven factories were destroyed, 114 seriously damaged.
Xuriguera Dam | 1944  | Barcelona | Spain  | 8  | Heavy rain.
Heiwaike Dam  | 1951  | Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture | Japan  | 117  | After heavy rain, the Heiwaike Dam collapsed, and water from the reservoir swallowed a downstream village. Eight houses ware damaged in Kameoka and the surrounding area.
Tangiwai disaster | 1953-12-24  | Whangaehu River | New Zealand  | 151  | Failure of Mount Ruapehu's crater lake. Natural tephra dam failed.
Taisho Lake Dam  | 1951  | Ide, Kyoto Prefecture | Japan  | 108  | Under the influence of heavy rain, outburst with a Ninotani Lake Dam.
Vega de Tera disaster | 1959-01-09  | Ribadelago | Spain  | 144  | According to dam workers' testimonies, the grounds had serious structural deficiencies due to poor construction. On the night of January 9, a 150-meter-long portion of the containing wall collapsed, releasing nearly 8 million m3 of stored water.[15]
Malpasset dam | 1959-12-02  | Côte d'Azur | France  | 423  | Geological fault possibly enhanced by explosives work during construction; initial geo-study was not thorough. Two villages were destroyed.
Kurenivka mudslide | 1961-03-13  | Kiev | Soviet Union  | 145  | Impoundment of the clay slurry reservoir (storing the waste of the local brick factories) failed after heavy rains, inundating the Kurenivka neighborhood with meters of mud. An unofficial modern report claims as high as 1,500 fatalities, while official reports state 145.
Panshet Dam | 1961-07-12  | Pune | India  | 1,000  | Dam wall burst due to pressure of accumulated rain water.[16] To protect the earthen dam from the flow of water, concrete blocks were used instead of steel-reinforced concrete due to a steel shortage.
Baldwin Hills Reservoir | 1963-12-14  | Los Angeles | United States  | 5  | Subsidence caused by over-exploitation of local oil field. Two hundred and seventy-seven homes destroyed.
Vajont Dam | 1963-10-09  | Monte Toc | Italy  | 1 917  | Strictly not a dam failure, since the dam structure did not collapse and is still standing. Filling the reservoir caused geological failure in valley wall, leading to 110 km/h landslide into the lake; water escaped in a wave over the top of dam. Valley had been incorrectly assessed as stable. Several villages completely wiped out.
Spaulding Pond Dam
(Mohegan Park)  | 1963-03-06  | Norwich | United States  | 6  | More than $6 million estimated damages.
Swift Dam | 1964-06-10  | Montana | United States  | 28  | Failed in heavy rains. Another nearby dam did likewise.
El Cobre New and Old Dam | 1965-03-28  | Valparaíso | Chile  | 350–400  | Liquefaction during an earthquake released water and mining waste which traveled downstream and buried the town of El Cobre.
Mina Plakalnitsa  | 1966-05-01  | Vratsa | Bulgaria  | 107  | A tailings dam at Plakalnitsa copper mine near Vratsa failed. A total 450,000 m3 of mud and water inundated Vratsa and the nearby village of Zgorigrad, which suffered widespread damage. The official death toll is 107, but an unofficial estimate is around 500 killed.[17][18]
Sempor Dam | 1967-11-29  | Central Java Province | Indonesia  | 138  | Flash floods over-topped the dam during construction.[19]
Certej dam failure | 1971-10-30  | Certej Mine | Romania  | 89  | A tailings dam built too tall collapsed, flooding Certeju de Sus with toxic tailings.[20]
Buffalo Creek Flood | 1972-02-26  | West Virginia | United States  | 125  | Unstable loose constructed dam created by local coal mining company, collapsed in heavy rain. 1,121 injured, 507 houses destroyed, over 4,000 left homeless.
Canyon Lake Dam | 1972-06-09  | South Dakota | United States  | 238  | Flooding, dam outlets clogged with debris. 3,057 injuries, over 1,335 homes and 5,000 automobiles destroyed.
Banqiao and Shimantan Dams | 1975-08-08  | Zhumadian | China  | 26,000–240,000  | The dam failure was caused by extreme rainfall, beyond the planned design capability of the dam, dumped on China by Typhoon Nina. Eleven million people lost their homes. Dam was later rebuilt between 1986 and 1993.
Teton Dam | 1976-06-05  | Idaho | United States  | 11  | Geological problems including unsuitable bedrock, seismic activity and caves. USGS, said prior to completion: "Since such a flood could be anticipated, we might consider a series of strategically placed motion-picture cameras to document the process". Water leakage eroded the earthen wall and lead to dam failure. Thirteen thousand head of cattle died.
Laurel Run Dam | 1977-07-19  | Johnstown | United States  | 40  | Heavy rainfall and flooding that over-topped the dam. Six other dams failed the same day, killing five people.
Kelly Barnes Dam | 1977-11-06  | Georgia | United States  | 39  | Unknown, possibly design error as dam was raised several times by owners to improve power generation.
Machchu-2 Dam | 1979-08-11  | Morbi | India  | 5 000  | The actual observed flow following the intense rainfall reached 16307 m3 s, thrice what the dam was designed for, resulting in its collapse. The 762 metres (2,500 ft) of left and 365 metres (1,198 ft) of right embankment of dam were collapsed.[5] Within 20 minutes the floods of 12 to 30 feet (3.7 to 9.1 m) height inundated the low-lying areas of Morbi industrial town located 5 km below the dam.[21]
Wadi Qattara Dam | 1979  | Benghazi | Libya  | 0  | Flooding beyond discharge and storage capacity damaged the main dam and destroyed the secondary dam in the scheme.
Lawn Lake Dam | 1982-07-15  | Rocky Mountain National Park | United States  | 3  | Outlet pipe erosion; dam under-maintained due to location.
Tous Dam | 1982-10-20  | Valencia | Spain  | 8  | Heavy flooding coupled with poor quality of the dam wall, lack of qualified staff and negligence of a warning of heavy rain in the area. On the next day, newspapers reported possibly 40 fatalities and 25 disappeared but in the coming days the count went down to 8 or 9. One year later, La Vanguardia spoke of 25.
Val di Stava dam | 1985-07-19  | Tesero | Italy  | 268  | Poor maintenance and low margin for error in design; outlet pipes failed leading to pressure on dam.
Kantale Dam | 1986-04-20  | Kantale | Sri Lanka  | 180  | Poor maintenance, leakage, and consequent failure. Destroyed over 1600 houses and 2,000 acres of paddy fields. The dam was 1,400 years old, and heavy modern vehicles were driven across it.
Upriver Dam  | 1986-05-20  | Spokane | United States  | 0  | Lightning struck power system, turbines shut down. Water rose behind dam while trying to restart. Backup power systems failed, could not raise spillway gates in time. Dam overtopped (rebuilt).
Belci dam failure | 1991-07-29  | Belci | Romania  | 25  | The embankment dam, built between 1958 and 1962 for the Borzești Petrochemical Plant on the Tazlău river, collapsed after record rainfall firstly overtopped the structure, followed by its breach later onwards. As the event happened in the night, 250 houses were destroyed, killing 25 people in the process.
Peruća Dam detonation  | 1993-01-28  | Split-Dalmatia County | Croatia  | 0  | Not strictly a dam failure as there was a detonation of pre-positioned explosives by retreating Serb Forces.
Merriespruit tailings dam | 1994-02-22  | Free State | South Africa  | 17  | Dam failed after a heavy thunderstorm. The dam was in an unacceptable condition prior to failure. Widespread devastation and environmental damage.
Meadow Pond Dam | 1996-03-13  | New Hampshire | United States  | 1  | Design and construction deficiencies resulted in failure in heavy icing conditions.
Saguenay Flood | 1996-07-19  | Quebec | Canada  | 10  | Problems started after two weeks of constant rain, which severely engorged soils, rivers and reservoirs. Post-flood enquiries discovered that the network of dikes and dams protecting the city was poorly maintained.
Opuha Dam | 1997-02-06  | Canterbury | New Zealand  | 0  | Heavy rain during construction caused failure, dam was later completed.
Virgen Dam | 1998  | Matagalpa | Nicaragua  | 0  | Heavy rains and flooding from Hurricane Mitch severely damaged the Mancotal and El Dorado Dams, over-topping their spillways and nearly destroying the dams. The Virgen Dam was destroyed but later rebuilt.[22][23]
Doñana disaster | 1998-04-25  | Andalusia | Spain  | 0  | Over-steepened dam failed by sliding on weak clay foundation, releasing 4–5 million m3 of acidic mine tailings into the River Agrio, a tributary of the River Guadiamar, which is the main water source for the Doñana National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Shihgang Dam | 1999-09-21  | Taichung | Taiwan  | 0  | Caused by damage sustained during the 1999 Jiji earthquake.
Martin County coal slurry spill | 2000-10-11  | Martin County, Kentucky | United States  | 0  | Failure of a coal slurry impoundment. The water supply for over 27,000 residents was contaminated. The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill and one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the southeastern United States
Vodní nádrž Soběnov  | 2002  | Soběnov | Czechia  | 0  | Extreme rainfall during the 2002 European floods.
Zeyzoun Dam | 2002-06-04  | Zeyzoun  | Syria  | 22  | 2,000 individuals displaced and over 10,000 directly affected.[24][25]
Silver Lake Dam | 2003-05-14  | Michigan | United States  | 0  | Heavy rains caused earthen Fuse plug dam and bank to wash away. Eighteen hundred people evacuated. Flood caused the failure of the downstream Tourist Park Dam.
Hope Mills Dam | 2003-05-26  | North Carolina | United States  | 0  | In heavy rains, floodgate held shut bay-water pressure. Sixteen hundred people evacuated.
Ringdijk Groot-Mijdrecht [nl] | 2003-08-23  | Wilnis | Netherlands  | 0  | Strictly not a dam or dike failure. The original peat soil surrounding a polder (where peat had subsided due to oxidization) was pushed away by the water in the canal. The peat became lighter than water during the 2003 drought. The real cause was new wooden piling along the canal. This new piling was water-tight and therefore the peat soil dried out. Around 1,500 residents had to be evacuated.
Big Bay Dam | 2004-03-12  | Mississippi | United States  | 0  | A small hole in the dam grew, spouted higher, and eventually led to failure. One hundred and four buildings damaged or destroyed.
Camará Dam | 2004-06-17  | Paraíba | Brazil  | 3  | Poor maintenance. Three thousand people homeless. A second failure happened 11 days after.
Shakidor Dam | 2005-02-10  | Pasni | Pakistan  | 70  | Sudden and extreme flooding caused by abnormally severe rain.
Taum Sauk reservoir | 2005-12-14  | Lesterville, Missouri | United States  | 0  | Computer/operator error; gauges intended to mark dam full were not respected; dam continued to fill. Minor leakages had also weakened the wall through piping. The dam of the lower reservoir withstood the onslaught of the flood.
Ka Loko Dam | 2006-03-14  | Kauai, Hawaii | United States  | 7  | Heavy rain and flooding. Several possible specific factors to include poor maintenance, lack of inspection and illegal modifications.[26]
Campos Novos Dam | 2006-06-20  | Campos Novos | Brazil  | 0  | Tunnel collapse.
Gusau Dam | 2006-09-30  | Gusau | Nigeria  | 40  | Heavy flooding, lack of maintenance. Approximately 500 homes were destroyed, displacing 1,000 people.
Lake Delton | 2008-06-09  | Wisconsin | United States  | 0  | Failure in June 2008 Midwest floods; nearby highway washed out, creating a new channel which drained the lake.
Koshi Barrage | 2008-08-18  | Koshi Zone | Nepal  | 250  | Neglect of barrage and the building of barrage itself. The region however saw weak monsoon and multi-year drought preceding the barrage failure. The flood affected over 2.3 million people in the northern part of Bihar.
Kingston Fossil Plant
coal fly ash slurry spill | 2008-12-22  | Roane County, Tennessee | United States  | 0  | Failure of a fly ash slurry pond.
Algodões Dam | 2009-05-27  | Piauí | Brazil  | 7  | Heavy rain.[27] 80 people injured, 2000 homeless.
Situ Gintung Dam  | 2009-03-27  | Tangerang | Indonesia  | 98  | Poor maintenance and heavy monsoon rain.
Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam | 2009-08-17  | Sayanogorsk | Russia  | 75  | Not a dam failure, but rather the power station accident where the turbine 2 broke apart violently due to the metal fatigue caused by overlooked vibrations, flooding the turbine hall and causing the ceiling to collapse. The dam itself was unaffected, and the power station rebuilt within 5 years.
Kyzyl-Agash Dam | 2010-03-11  | Qyzylaghash | Kazakhstan  | 43  | Heavy rain and snowmelt. Causes, deathtoll disputed. Three hundred people were injured and over 1,000 evacuated from the village.
Hope Mills Dam | 2010-06-16  | North Carolina | United States  | 0  | Sinkhole caused dam failure. Second failure of the dam, will be replaced.
Testalinda Dam | 2010-06-13  | Oliver, British Columbia | Canada  | 0  | Heavy Rain, low maintenance. Destroyed at least 5 homes. Buried Highway 97.
Delhi Dam | 2010-07-24  | Iowa | United States  | 0  | Heavy rain, flooding, malfunctioning spillwy and structural problems. Around 8,000 people had to be evacuated. Replacement uncertain due to lake-dredging debt.
Niedow Dam | 2010-08-07  | Lower Silesian Voivodeship | Poland  | 1  | Heavy rain, over-topped from flooding.[28]
Ajka alumina plant accident | 2010-10-04  | Ajka | Hungary  | 10  | Failure of concrete impound wall on alumina plant tailings dam. One million cubic meters of red mud contaminated a large area; within days the mud had reached the Danube.
Kenmare Resources tailings dam  | 2010-10-04  | Topuito  | Mozambique  | 1  | Failure of tailings dam at titanium mine. Three hundred homes had been rebuilt.
Fujinuma Dam | 2011-03-11  | Sukagawa | Japan  | 8  | Failed after 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. Authorities state that the dam failure was caused by the earthquake, making these the first earthquake-caused dam failure fatalities since 1930,[dubious - discuss] worldwide.[29] Nearby dams damaged by same earthquake.
Campos dos Goytacazes dam  | 2012-01-04  | Campos dos Goytacazes | Brazil  | 0  | Failed after a period of flooding.[30] 4000 people displaced.
Ivanovo Dam | 2012-02-06  | Biser | Bulgaria  | 8  | Failed after a period of heavy snowmelt. A crack in the dam went unrepaired for years. Eight people killed and several communities flooded.[31]
Köprü Dam | 2012-02-24  | Adana Province | Turkey  | 10  | A gate in the diversion tunnel broke after a period of heavy rain during the reservoir's first filing. The accident killed ten workers.[32][33]
Dakrong 3 Dam | 2012-10-07  | Quảng Trị Province | Vietnam  | 0  | Poor design aggravated by Typhoon Gaemi flood surge.
Tokwe Mukorsi Dam | 2014-02-04  | Masvingo Province | Zimbabwe  | 0  | Downstream slope failure on a 90.3-meter-tall (296 ft) embankment dam, possibly as the reservoir was being filled. Residents evacuated upstream.
Mount Polley | 2014-08-04  | British Columbia | Canada  | 0  | Tailings dam collapse due to negligent operation; reservoir was overfilled beyond design parameters despite repeated warnings of the danger[34][35][36] combined with a minor dam breach a few months before[37] and fundamental design flaws.[38]
Mariana dam disaster | 2015-11-05  | Mariana, Minas Gerais | Brazil  | 19  | Tailings dam collapsed. One village destroyed, 600 people evacuated. Sixty million m3 of iron waste slurry polluted Doce River, and the sea near the river's mouth.
Maple Lake  | 2017-10-05  | Paw Paw, Michigan | United States  | 0  | A heavy rainstorm caused a section of a dam to crumble because of the weight of a pond above, which happened around 5 a.m.[39]
Patel Dam | 2018-05-10  | Solai | Kenya  | 47  | Failed after several days of heavy rain. Private dam, causes unclear.
Panjshir Valley dam | 2018-07-11  | Panjshir Valley | Afghanistan  | 10  | Dilapidated dam crumbled under heavy summer rains, 13 missing, 300 houses destroyed.
Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Dam | 2018-07-23  | Attapeu Province | Laos  | 36  | Saddle dam under construction collapsed during rainstorms. Six thousand six hundred people homeless, 98 missing. Company denied the dam had collapsed.[40]
Swar Chaung Dam | 2018-08-19  | Yedashe | Myanmar  | 4  | Breach in the dam's spillway. Sixty-three thousand evacuated, 3 missing. Eighty-five villages affected.
Sanford Dam, Patricia Lake | 2018-09-15  | Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina | United States  | 0  | Overtopping after over 36 inches of rainfall during landfall of Hurricane Florence.
Brumadinho dam disaster | 2019-01-25  | Brumadinho, Minas Gerais | Brazil  | 270  | Tailings dam suffered a catastrophic failure releasing 12 million m3 of tailings slurry.
Spencer Dam | 2019-03-14  | Near Spencer, Nebraska | United States  | 0  | Dam was breached after a major storm caused heavy rain.
Tiware Dam | 2019-07-02  | Ratnagiri District | India  | 23  | Heavy rains overtopped and breached the dam.
Edenville Dam | 2020-05-19  | Edenville, Michigan | United States  | 0  | Static liquefaction.[41]
Sanford Dam | 2020-05-19  | Sanford, Michigan | United States  | 0  | The failure of the Edenville Dam immediately upstream caused a large inflow into Sanford Lake, which overtopped the dam.[41]
2021 Uttarakhand flood | 2021-02-07  | Chamoli, Uttarkhand | India  | 61  | The Rishiganga dam was destroyed by either an avalanche or a glacier burst, leading to a large surge of water downstream that also breached the Tapovan Hydropower Plant.[42] One hundred and forty-five people missing.
2022 Jagersfontein Dam Collapse | 2022-09-11  | Jagersfontein, Free State | South Africa  | 3  | Structural failure.
Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam | 2023-06-06  | Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast | Ukraine  | 58  | Unknown, presumed intentional explosion.
Derna dam collapses | 2023-09-11  | Derna | Libya  | 5,900–20,000  | Failure of two roughly 75- and 45-meter-tall dams following heavy rain from Storm Daniel against the backdrop of the Libyan civil war resulting in the city of Derna being inundated with approximately 30 million m3 of water.[43]
Arbaat Dam collapse | 2024-08-24  | Port Sudan | Sudan  | 148[44] | The collapse was triggered by severe rainfall and consequential flooding.[45][46]

## See also

[edit]

* Dam removal
* Grout curtain
* List of bridge failures
* List of hydroelectric power station failures
* Reservoir safety
* Structural integrity and failure

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Souza, Leonardo; Sanjay Pandit, Grishma; Prakash Chanekar, Tanvi. "Case Study and Forensic Investigation of Failure of Dam Above Kedarnath" (PDF). International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
2. ^ "Science Engineering & Sustainability: Dam break simulation with HEC-RAS: Chepete proposed dam". Science Engineering & Sustainability. Archived from the original on 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
3. ^ Osnos, Evan (October 12, 2011). "Faust, China, and Nuclear Power". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016.
4. ^ a b Dill, David B. (1987). "Terror on the Hassayampa: The Walnut Grove Dam Disaster of 1890". The Journal of Arizona History. 28 (3): 283–306. ISSN 0021-9053. JSTOR 41859769. PMID 11617262. Archived from the original on 2022-10-18. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
5. ^ a b c Coleman, Neil M. (2018). Johnstown's Flood of 1889 - Power Over Truth and The Science Behind the Disaster. Springer International AG. ISBN 978-3-319-95215-4.
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## External links

[edit]

* A list of dam failures and incidents in the United States Dam Safety.org
* Chronology of major tailings dam failures from 1960 WISE Uranium Project
* Chanson, H. (2009) Application of the Method of Characteristics to the Dam Break Wave Problem Journal of Hydraulic Research, IAHR, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 41–49 doi:10.3826/jhr.2009.2865 (ISSN 0022-1686). Available as a pdf at [1]
* Dam Failure and Flood Event Case History Compilation Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine Bureau of Reclamation
* Mount Polley mine: Ex-engineers warned tailings pond 'getting large'
* Floods from tailings dam failures
* Story of Soviet dam explosion to prevent Nazi troop advances

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