Case Studies

The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) began construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1956 as a part of the Colorado River Storage Project to provide water storage, flood control, and hydropower to Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico.

Guajataca Dam is a 121 ft high, 1,037 ft long, high hazard potential earthen embankment structure constructed using semi-hydraulic fill methods for the central core (i.e., “puddle” core) and rolled and compacted outer shells composed of a mixture of clayey soils, gravel, and cobbles.

Construction of the Harmony Gold Mine No. 4 tailings dam began in 1978 and was sited 300 m (1,000 feet) away from the suburban town of Merriespruit in South Africa.

Hawkins Dam impounded the most downstream reservoir in the Wenner Lakes chain of manmade lakes located 6 miles Southeast of Twisp WA in Okanogan County. Hawkins Dam Impounded Wenner Lake No. 1. Hawkins Dam is a 35-foot high earthfill dam with a crest length of 350 feet and impounds a 4-acre reservoir with a volume of 22 acre-feet...

Just before midnight on August 17th 1959 in southwest Montana, in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park, a Mw 7.3 earthquake caused an estimated 36 to 43 million cubic yard rockslide to rapidly cross the Madison River and continue up the opposite canyon...

At approximately 5 a.m. on March 14, 2006, following a four-week period of heavy rainfall, Ka Loko Dam experienced an unexpected, catastrophic, and massive breach that quickly drained nearly the entire reservoir.

Kelly Barnes Dam was located approximately a half mile upstream (north) of Toccoa Falls Bible College in Stephens County, Georgia. Toccoa Falls, a 186-foot-high waterfall, was located between the dam and the college. The dam site was originally the location...

Kingsley Dam is located on the North Platte River in western Nebraska. At 163 feet (50 m) tall and over three miles long, it is the largest dam in Nebraska. On May 1st and 2nd, 1972, a 30-hour windstorm battered and eroded the upstream face of the dam.