Posted on 08/26/2014 10:15:39 AM PDT by thackney
...The first is the Mosul Dam, which stretches across the Tigris River in a valley north of Mosul, Iraq. As dams go, this one is a civil engineering horror. The dam was captured on Aug. 7 by the Islamic State, and retaken 10 days later by...
Should the two-mile-wide dam fail, which is likely, Mosul would be wiped out and the damage would extend to Baghdad. Loss of life could reach 500,000, and millions could be deprived of water and power: an immense catastrophe piled on the daily pain of Iraq.
The second dam, in southern Africa on the Zambezi River, is the Kariba. This 55-year-old dam, by some measures, is the world’s second largest. It was a civil engineering masterpiece and has held up well, given the spotty maintenance by its owners – Zambia, on the north bank and Zimbabwe, on the south bank.
But the Kariba Dam is predicted to fail within three years unless it undergoes massive repair. If it does, surging water would rip a vast trench down the length of the Zambezi River on its route to the Indian Ocean. The wall of water would take out another giant dam, Cahora Bassa, in Mozambique.
Loss of life could reach 3.5 million, with untold damage to wildlife. South central Africa would lose 40 percent of its electric supply....
The Mosul Dam was a rush job, ordered by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s without regard to the engineering realities of the site. It is anchored in gypsum, which dissolves in water. Daily, leaks in the foundation have to be plugged with grout -- a mixture of cement and sand. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the Mosul Dam is fundamentally the wrong structure for the location, and called it the “most dangerous dam in the world.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Well, just damn.......................
When the Corps of Engineers arrives on your land, they should begin by reading you your rights...
Considering that: "The Mosul Dam was a rush job, ordered by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s without regard to the engineering realities of the site. It is anchored in gypsum, which dissolves in water. " I guess that we'll have to add civil engineer to the list of things Saddam wasn't.
tick tock, tick tock
perhaps Obie can Fix This??
with an executive order and a hashtag!
In dam repair grout seems to be the functional equivalent of duct tape.
If it’s so dangerous, shouldn’t Mosul start releasing the water NOW?
Now THAT might be hard to “illustrate”
It would be a short read................
Keep in mind this is nothing new. The grout injection began in 1986, shortly after filling.
The most dangerous dames are Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
Miley Cyrus deserves honorable mention, but her bad role model is so over the top, it may scare an entire generation to wise up and act right.
If we stop treating other culture as if they’re five year olds in need of rescue, they just might grow up.
Let me be the first... IF they want it fixed they can negotiate an agreement beyond ‘people will die’ and we know you silly white people don’t like that”.
It’w THEIR problem unless they deal with us as adults.
Why can’t Iraq foot the bill?
They sell plenty of oil.
I'm not sure history agrees with that for the majority of cultures. Many just make room for the replacements that come later.
IF they want it fixed they can negotiate an agreement
100% agree. Just because it really, really needs to be fixed does not mean it needs to be fixed for free. Financial terms available with sufficient crude oil delivery as payment.
Oh that is nothing compared to what would happen if the megastructures built under the antarctic ice sheet were to suffer a catostrophic collapse event....
If that happens build a boat or run to the mountains...
What megastructures have been built there?
Huh?????????
.
Like sticking your finger in a dyke.
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