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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| As China's mega dam rises so do strains and fears | |
| 2007-11-14 | |
Xiang Chuncai, who has lived much of her 84 years on this hillside of orange groves above the Yangtze, recalled waking in fright last year to rattling windows and rumbling noises from the earth. The tremors returned several times in past months, residents of this village in Hubei province said. "It's all been splitting since the Three Gorges Dam was filled," Xiang said, poking a wide crack snaking up a wall in her earth-brick home. "We don't have the money to move ... I'm scared what will happen if we stay," Xiang added. Along the 660-km (410-mile) reservoir, residents pointed to erosion, slides and deformed terrain they said have seriously worsened since last year, when the water level was raised a second time. While authorities have vowed to contain geological aftershocks from the dam, poor farmers worry about being swallowed up by landslides. The resulting tensions threaten to rekindle the bitter clashes that long dogged the project. "Sometimes the ground rumbles and shakes, dogs bark, babies cry. It frightens us too," said Xiang's neighbour, Su Gongxiang, showing his front door that will no longer shut. These days, China stands almost alone among nations in wielding the wealth and will to conjure up vast engineering efforts to alter the flow of rivers and lives of millions. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's biggest, an engineering feat that seeks to tame the world's third longest river while displacing 1.4 million people. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #18 SPACEWAR > TERRADAILY - ACTIVISTS: WORLD MUST HELP TO SAVE VITAL MEKONG RIVER. Local 4-Nation Mekong River Commission [MRC]isn't doing enuff nor working together. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-11-14 23:58 |
| #17 big projects have inertia - "we've spent all this money, we can't quit noq" - and in teh Commie land - it could mean eating teh peanut to oppose a central committee project. I predict great fun, catastrophic failure, execution of low-level commie management and a vow to return to Maoist principles. After all, if anyone knew how to do design and build massive projects, it was Mao... or Kim Jong Il, ....I forget |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-14 23:20 |
| #16 Large bodies of water behind dams, with their increased mass on the underlying terra firma can cause earthquakes. Also, numerous landslides are reported at the new waterside. I hope that their dam is way overbuilt, because larger amounts of flyash were reported added to save money on cement. I doubt that 3 gorges will catastrophically fail, but it would be a hell of a show if it did. Somebody will have a video of the whole shebang. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in Fairbanks 2007-11-14 23:00 |
| #15 I remember a big bridge in the Twin Cities... It happens. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-11-14 18:54 |
| #14 In the 19th century is was common for bridges in the US to fail. Still, we build bridges -- at least the men do. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2007-11-14 12:49 |
| #13 These days, China stands almost alone among nations in wielding the wealth and will to conjure up vast engineering efforts to alter the flow of rivers and lives of millions. Nice for some UK leftoid to have a country with industrial might he can masturbate to. Anywhere else this monstrosity would be condemned as a social and environmental catastrophe. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-11-14 09:29 |
| #12 this makes me think of the show I saw about the mega-tsunami in Alaska caused by a landslide into a narrow bay. That wiped out everything to the 300 ft level if I recall. If all of this "settling" happens at once how is that dam going to react? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2007-11-14 08:50 |
| #11 The Granite Geology underlying the Three Gorges Damn was all reviewed by Yourpeon, Asian and US engineering firms...So it's not likely that a total catastrophic failure is looming, course Damns have failed before... We'll have to wait for the fly-ash expert here at Rantburg for the FINAL WOID!! |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-11-14 07:57 |
| #10 Bah! As a civil engineer, I say all of our structures (properly designed) will last forever. More or less. I find it hard to believe the designers did not consider the overtopping of the dam, in which case, the spring floods may overtop it, but should not damage it. Happens all the time. During a period of heavy rain in (about) 1990, White Rock Lake dam in Dallas (TX) overtopped by eight feet for several days, and some of the dam lake (oooh, pretty punny!) was only eight feet deep! Other Corps of Engineers dams in the area experienced a similar fate, IIRC. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-11-14 07:42 |
| #9 Yangtze was not meant to be obstructed. The flow volume at times is too great for our puny sand castles. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-11-14 04:43 |
| #8 gorb, possible, but in all likelihood, it would not make much difference, actully probably make things worse than if the dam gave right from the start. Once the banks are eroded, the heavy mixture of water, silt and debree would flow around the obstruction, denting dam's edges, and erase anything in its path. More than usual snowfall in winter or heavy rains, and you can stick a fork in it. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-11-14 04:38 |
| #7 Yeah. All the water behind the dam is causing the local countryside to shift as it adjusts. I'm sure it's nothing from Mother Nature's perspective, but it's a big deal to those who happen to be living on said resettling land. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-11-14 04:20 |
| #6 I read this as the banks of the river being in danger, not the dam itself, which should be founded in bedrock. Possible/true? |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-11-14 03:40 |
| #5 Maybe it's the whitewater rafting venue for the Olympics. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-11-14 02:22 |
| #4 No need, Joe, there is already one motha canal, it is called Pacific/Indian Ocean. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-11-14 02:20 |
| #3 Looks like 'ole TEDDY ROOSEVELT = USA will have to be the one to build the proposed PANAMA CANAL = PAN/ALL-ASIA CANAL??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-11-14 01:12 |
| #2 It'll pop. Likely in spring. They're mega damned. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-11-14 01:03 |
| #1 Dam them all. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-14 01:02 |