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Geotechnical News • June 2018
GEOHAZARDS
Dam/incident
Year
Location
Fatalities Details
2
Certej dam failure
1971
Certej Mine, Romania 89
A tailings dam collapsed, flooding Certeju de
Sus with toxic tailings.
Buffalo Creek Flood
1972
West Virginia,
United States
125
Coal tailings collapsed during high
precipitation.
Canyon Lake Dam
1972
South Dakota,
United States
238
Flooding, dam outlets flooded with debris.
Banqiao and
Shimantan Dams
1975
China
171,000 Extreme rainfall beyond the planned design
capability of the dam. Worst dam failure.
Teton Dam
1976
Idaho, United States 11
Water leakage through earthen wall, leading
to dam failure.
Laurel Run Dam
1977
Johnstown,
Pennsylvania,
United States
40
Heavy rainfall and flooding that over-topped
the dam.
Kelly Barnes Dam
1977
Georgia, United States 39
Unknown; dam was raised several times by
owners to improve power generation.
Machchu-2 Dam
1979
Morbi, Gujarat, India 1,800-
25,000
Heavy rain and flooding beyond spillway
capacity.
Wadi Qattara Dam
1979
Benghazi, Libya
0
Flooding beyond discharge and stor-
age capacity damaged the main dam and
destroyed the secondary dam in the scheme.
Lawn Lake Dam
1982
Rocky Mountain
National Park,
United States
3
Outlet pipe erosion; dam under-maintained
due to location.
Tous Dam
1982
Valencia, Spain
30-40
Val di Stava dam
1985
Italy
268
Poor maintenance and low margin for error in
design; outlet pipes failed leading to pressure
on dam.
Upriver Dam
1986
Washington
State, 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 over-
topped (rebuilt).
Peruća Dam
detonation
1993
Croatia
0
Not strictly a dam failure as there was a
detonation of pre-positioned explosives by
retreating Serb Forces.
Saguenay Flood
1996
Quebec, Canada
10
Problems started after two weeks of constant
rain, which severely engorged soils, rivers
and reservoirs. Post-flood enquiries discov-
ered that the network of dikes and dams
protecting the city was poorly maintained.
Meadow Pond Dam 1996
New
Hampshire,
United States
1
Design and construction deficiencies resulted
in failure in heavy icing conditions.
Opuha Dam
1997
New Zealand
0
Heavy rain during construction caused fail-
ure, dam was later completed.
