maedchenhosen

maedchenhosen t1_j5f6mai wrote

Reply to comment by SierraVictoriaCharli in TIL that the California St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, a midnight-hour 120' wave that killed 431 sleeping people and wiped out giant sections of land more than 50 miles west to Ventura, was caused by the dam having been built on a fault zone (in addition to the dam's retention of water). by atrailofdisasters

Thank you!!! I’ve been to the site and climbed over to the western edge - the schist there is clearly weak. It’s hard to believe they thought it’s be ok :(

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maedchenhosen t1_j5f6cpe wrote

Reply to comment by SierraVictoriaCharli in TIL that the California St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, a midnight-hour 120' wave that killed 431 sleeping people and wiped out giant sections of land more than 50 miles west to Ventura, was caused by the dam having been built on a fault zone (in addition to the dam's retention of water). by atrailofdisasters

Thank you! Small veins of gypsum and talc certainly wouldn’t help (and you’re right, talc is slippery and probably worse than gypsum). I’ve been to the site and the schist is clearly very friable at least at the surface. Thanks for expanding my knowledge on the site :)

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maedchenhosen t1_j5de95z wrote

Reply to comment by SierraVictoriaCharli in TIL that the California St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, a midnight-hour 120' wave that killed 431 sleeping people and wiped out giant sections of land more than 50 miles west to Ventura, was caused by the dam having been built on a fault zone (in addition to the dam's retention of water). by atrailofdisasters

Can you point me to where it says they built on gypsum deposits? I can’t seem to find it and thought the issue was they built on schist.

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maedchenhosen t1_j5ddftt wrote

Reply to comment by SierraVictoriaCharli in TIL that the California St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, a midnight-hour 120' wave that killed 431 sleeping people and wiped out giant sections of land more than 50 miles west to Ventura, was caused by the dam having been built on a fault zone (in addition to the dam's retention of water). by atrailofdisasters

I thought it was schist, not gypsum. Can you point me to where it says gypsum was the issue?

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