Case Studies

Derna, Libya is defined by its setting on the Mediterranean Sea. It has a robust fishing industry, a renowned seafood scene, thriving forests, and – in a largely arid nation – an unusually moist climate. The city, population 100,000 as of 2023, lies atop an alluvial fan at the mouth of the Wadi Derna, wadi being Arabic for a riverbed.

Anita Dam is located about 22 miles north of Chinook, Montana, about 5 miles south of the Canadian border. The drainage, which normally flows only in response to snowmelt or heavy rain, is an unnamed tributary...

Austin Dam (also known as Bayless Dam) was constructed between May and November of 1909 just outside Austin, Pennsylvania, a town of approximately 2,500 people in Potter County.

The Baldwin Hills Reservoir was constructed in 1951 to provide water to the south and southwest portions of the city of Los Angeles, California. Sitting atop one of the tallest hills in the region, the reservoir was confined on three sides by compacted earth dikes...

Construction of Banqiao Dam began in April 1951 and was completed 14 months later, in June 1952. Constructed on the Ru River in Henan Province, China, it was part of a larger project to provide flood control, irrigation water, and electrical power to the region.

Chile is probably the most seismically active country in the world, contributing a high percentage of total seismic energy released worldwide. Chile is also the world’s largest copper producer, generating 2.5 millions of tons of copper tailings each day. The failure of Barahona No. 1 dam in 1928 was the first record of an earthquake induced collapse of a tailings dam in Chile.

A number of the site conditions, design and construction details, and the distress indicators that developed between the initial reservoir filling and failure combine to suggest a complex internal erosion...

On February 26, 1972 at approximately 8:00 A.M., Coal Slurry Impoundment #3 at the Buffalo Creek coal mine in Logan County, West Virginia gave way sending millions of gallons of water and millions of cubic yards of coal slurry down the Buffalo Creek. Over the next three hours...