Read Parts 1 & 2 here. [meteor_slideshow slideshow=”teton-dam-collapse”] Click on left arrow to advance photos in chronological order from right to left. AFTERMATH In the effort to understand the causes and origins of this monumental failure there were a number of conclusions arrived at by the various investigating committees. No final agreement was ever reached as to any single cause […]

Read part 1 here. PRELUDE Like the Mosul Dam, the Teton Dam was an earthen embankment structure and, like the current dangerous predicament of the Mosul Dam, the failure of the Teton Dam was the result of the cumulative effect of human error. The multiple purposes for which the dam was being built included agricultural irrigation, flood control, power generation […]

“As every dam engineer knows, water also has one job, and that is to get past anything in its way” David Macauley, Building Big, 2000. I have written in another article about a potential disaster that could occur in Iraq if the Mosul Dam fails. I described the conditions of the dam built during the regime of Saddam Hussein on […]