 Tigra Dam (Madya Pradesh - 1917)

 This was a hand placed masonry in lime mortar

gravity dam of 24m height, constructed for the
purpose of water supply.A depth of 0.85m of
water overtopped the dam over a length of 400m.
This was equilatent to an outflow of 850 cumecs.
Two major blocks were bodily pushed away.The
failure was due to sliding.(Photo 1). The dam was
reconstructed in 1929.
 SAINT FRANCIS DAM (USA
-1926-28)
 The curved concrete gravity dam (radius 152m) of
height 56m failed due to the seepage, mainly
through foundation and little through the body of
the dam. Except for the section at the middle
portion, the other parts failed completely. The
very large fragments resulted from rupture were
scattered for a distance of several thousand
metres downstream. 450 lives were lost. (Photo 2
and 3 )
HELL HOLE DAM (USA 1966)
 The Hell Hole (lower) dam was a rockfill
dam of height 125m, failed during
construction, when the rains filled the
reservoir to an elevation of 30m above the
clay core.
BALDWIN HILLS DAM ( USA
1951-63)
 This earthen dam of height 80m, was
constructed for water supply, with its main
earthen embankment at northern end of the
reservoir and the five minor ones to cover
low lying areas along the perimeter. The
failure occurred at the northern
embankment portion,
 adjacent to the spillway( indicated a gradual
deterioration of the foundation during the
life of the structure) over one of the fault
zones. The V-shaped breach was 27.5m
deep and 23m wide. (Photos 5,6,7,8 show
the sequence of the failure)
TETON DAM (USA -1976)
 This embankment dam of maximum height
93m, failed due to seepage through the
dam.The seepage was initially noticed at
mid height of right abutment downstream
junction line and due to the piping, the dam
breached. (Photo 9). The total duration for
the complete development since the
observation of the seepage was 4 hours.
PANSHET DAM (India -1961)
 This earth dam (51m high) failed during the first
filling itself. The reason assigned for the failure
was, the poor construction resulting from
accelerated pace of construction in order to
achieve an earlier target.When the filling
commenced, the dam was still incomplete. Due to
very heavy rainfall (about 1780mm) in 23 days,
the newly created reservoir was subjected to high
inflow resulting in he failure of the dam. ( and
added to the destructive flood at Khadakwasla
dam situated down stream)
KHADAKWASLA DAM (INDIA
1864-1961)
 This rubble masonary dam was built for
supplying water to Pune district. The dam
(30m high) was not designed for uplift
forces and foundation drainage. As a result
of very heavy rainfall (about 1780mm) in 23
days and the consequence of the failure of
the Panshet dam in the upstream, brought
a large volume of water into Khadakwasla
reservoir .
 This resulted in the flow of water about 3m
in depth over the top of this dam.This 95
year old dam had withstood this onslaught
for about 4 hours and at the failure time the
receding flood had an elevation of about
2m above the top of the dam. (Photo 10)
MALPASSET (FRANCE 1954-59)
 This is an arch dam of height 66m with
222m long crest at its crown. When the
collapse occurred , the dam was subjected
to a record head of water, which was just
about 0.3m below the highest water level,
resulting from 5 days of unprecedented
rainfall.
 The failure occurred as the arch ruptured
as the left abutment gave away. The left
abutment moved about 2m horizontally
without any noticeable vertical movement.
(Photo 11) The water marks left by the
wave revealed that the release of water
was almost at once.
VAIONT DAM (ITALY -1960-63)
 This is an arch dam 267m high. During the test
filling of the dam a land slide of volume 0.765
million cubic metre occurred into the reservoir and
was not taken note of. During 1963, the entire
mountain side slid into the reservoir ( volume of
the slide 238million cubic metre which was slightly
more than the reservoir volume itself) This
material occupied 2km of reservoir upto a height
of about 175mabove the reservoir level resulting
in overtopping of the dam.
MACHHU II DAM (Gujarat India
1973-79)
 About 18,200 cubic metre of water broke
through 24.5 m high composite Machhu
dam II ripping away its right and left flanks,
due to 12 days of heavy rainfall which was
7 times the normal at that period. In
addition to this Dantiwada dam failure
brought additional water to this dam.
 The spillway was designed to pass a peak
flood of 5700 cumecs where as the peak
flood generatrd exceeded 14000cumecs
which resulted in the over topping of the
earthen flanks. The entire Morvi town
located downstream was washed out.
CHIKKOLE DAM (Karnataka
India-1967-72)
 The hand laid masonary dam 670m long
and straight in plan except for a slight kink
near thr right abutment and was 30m high.
The dam was constructed in lime surkhi
mortar, founded on rock consisting of
weathered granitic gneiss.The dam
breached suddenly during December 1972
at the right flank.
 The failure was due to the tensile stresses
and overturning.The dam had flaws like
horizontal cracks due to over pressures
during grouting. A rise in water level by
1.5m due to very large flood just
preceeding thr breach accelerated the
failure.
GOTTA BARRAGE (Orissa India
1976-80)
 The Gotta barriage failed due to a flood
peak of 50000cumecs against the design
flood of 29000 cumecs. Photos 13 and 14
show the breached section on the left canal
bank and the damages caused by the flash
flood.