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Flooding Threatens to Overwhelm China’s Three Gorges Dam

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posted on Jul, 31 2010 @ 07:50 PM
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Flooding Threatens to Overwhelm China’s Three Gorges Dam:

From: inhabitat.com...-143385


Heavy rains have brought water levels at China’s Three Gorges Dam to within spitting distance of the massive structure’s maximum capacity. Chinese officials have defended the controversial dam, saying that it would be able to withstand 10,000-year floods. However the country’s summer rains are the worst they have been in 10 years, with widespread flooding causing the deaths of at least 823 people.


The pictures at this link are astounding. It's at 90% capacity. And it's still raining.

Any bleak predictions what will happen if this dam overflows? They said it could withstand 1000 year floods. Well.. looks like they overestimated the abilities of their monstrosity.



posted on Jul, 31 2010 @ 08:05 PM
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Looks like aside from the immediate area, which appears to have sprouted a smallish city around it, the next major casualty of a break in 3-gorges would be the town of Yichang. It is 4 million or so people. It also appears to be at the end of the gorge as it opens into a plain, so there really would be nowhere to run.

I really hope the damn does not break or even overflow. That would be a disaster of epic proportions. Maybe even enough to destabilize that part of China.



posted on Jul, 31 2010 @ 08:11 PM
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We'll finally see how good Chinese engineering is. The flood gates being opened puts massive strain on the concrete structure. Notice how the water is dropping onto the concrete blockhouse along the bottom of the dam. Tremendous force and pressure there.

At 90% full, it will still need a large amount of water to top off the reservoir. Most flood control control reservoirs in the USA Midwest have a normal pool level of 75-80%. The last 10-15% is surprisingly hard to fill. You can't think in terms of water volume needing just 10-15% more water. Its structure height, and this area will include hundreds of thousands to millions of acres of land waiting for water. With a couple of reservoirs I am aware of, you can double the amount of water from 80 to 90% then double it again to 95% full. It's logarithmic in scale not geometric.

I'm am positive the Chinese thought this one out for this as it is a flood control system along with a hydroelectric generation facility.

Now imagine how much flooding, death, and destruction would be happening in the next couple of months without this dam. Probably in the range of several hundred thousand lives saved.



posted on Jul, 31 2010 @ 09:24 PM
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Originally posted by hinky
We'll finally see how good Chinese engineering is. The flood gates being opened puts massive strain on the concrete structure. Notice how the water is dropping onto the concrete blockhouse along the bottom of the dam. Tremendous force and pressure there.

At 90% full, it will still need a large amount of water to top off the reservoir. Most flood control control reservoirs in the USA Midwest have a normal pool level of 75-80%. The last 10-15% is surprisingly hard to fill. You can't think in terms of water volume needing just 10-15% more water. Its structure height, and this area will include hundreds of thousands to millions of acres of land waiting for water. With a couple of reservoirs I am aware of, you can double the amount of water from 80 to 90% then double it again to 95% full. It's logarithmic in scale not geometric.

I'm am positive the Chinese thought this one out for this as it is a flood control system along with a hydroelectric generation facility.

Now imagine how much flooding, death, and destruction would be happening in the next couple of months without this dam. Probably in the range of several hundred thousand lives saved.


I can certainly understand this. As I have seen most dams are constructed in pinch points (or in the case of three gorged, they built a pinch point) that allows them to build up the body of the dam. At the top, however, there is a normal "bank" that expands out so that going up 1 ft in water level means that you are covering a lot more land than you would have been in the basin that comprises the main body of the resevoir. I suppose it is the same concept as millions of gallons of ice melting only raises the global ocean levels an inch or two, but that inch or two may flood an entire city.



posted on Jul, 31 2010 @ 09:24 PM
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I call your attention to earlier reports of cracks apearing in the damn thing already......
I dont have the link handy but its out there...
If the rains keep comming the likelihood of failure must also increase geometrically....or whatever.....



posted on Aug, 1 2010 @ 01:26 AM
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Originally posted by hinky
Now imagine how much flooding, death, and destruction would be happening in the next couple of months without this dam. Probably in the range of several hundred thousand lives saved.


This is very true, in the past when this dam was not there huge
numbers of ppl have died.

1931 Floods in China

Also the tremendous amount of electrical power made by the dam
makes it the largest hydro-electric plant on earth.




The little ants near one of the turbines are ppl, LOL.


[edit on 1-8-2010 by Ex_MislTech]



posted on Aug, 1 2010 @ 03:14 AM
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Originally posted by stirling
I call your attention to earlier reports of cracks apearing in the damn thing already......
I dont have the link handy but its out there...
If the rains keep comming the likelihood of failure must also increase geometrically....or whatever.....


Here's a link and short video from early June 2010

blogs.telegraph.co.uk...


I just recalled about that Amer Indian prophecy, I thought it stated the 3 Gorges Dam and death in the 6 digit range - and maybe a few weeks past due. I hope it's wrong.




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