A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event.
A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.
The Great Sheffield Flood was a flood that devastated parts of Sheffield, England, on 11 March 1864, when the Dale Dyke Dam broke as its reservoir was being filled for the first time. At least 240 people died and more than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed by the flood. The immediate cause was a crack in the embankment, the cause of which was never determined. The dam's failure led to reforms in engineering practice, setting standards on specifics that needed to be met when constructing such large-scale structures. The dam was rebuilt in 1875.
Mariano Rumor was an Italian politician and statesman. A member of the Christian Democracy (DC), he served as the 39th prime minister of Italy from December 1968 to August 1970 and again from July 1973 to November 1974. As prime minister, he led five different governments, supported by various coalitions.
The Vajont Dam or Vaiont Dam is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of 262 m (860 ft). It is in the valley of the Vajont (river) under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, 100 km (62 mi) north of Venice.
Giovanni Leone was an Italian politician, jurist and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the president of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. He also briefly served as Prime Minister of Italy from June to December 1963 and again from June to December 1968. He was also the president of the Chamber of Deputies from May 1955 until June 1963.
Longarone is a town and comune on the banks of the Piave in the province of Belluno, in northeast Italy. It is situated 35 kilometres from Belluno.
The Baldwin Hills Dam disaster occurred on December 14, 1963 in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of South Los Angeles, when the dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir suffered a catastrophic failure and flooded the residential neighborhoods surrounding it.
Castellavazzo is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Belluno in the Italian region of Veneto, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Venice and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Belluno. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,735 and an area of 18.8 square kilometres (7.3 sq mi).
Erto e Casso is a comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 130 kilometres (81 mi) northwest of Trieste and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Pordenone.
A dam failure or dam burst is a catastrophic type of structural failure characterized by the sudden, rapid, and uncontrolled release of impounded water or the likelihood of such an uncontrolled release. Between the years 2000 and 2009 more than 200 notable dam failures happened worldwide.
Casso is an Italian village, frazione of Erto e Casso, in the Province of Pordenone. Its population is 35. Together with Erto, its administrative seat, it forms the municipality of Erto-Casso.
The Wappa Dam is a mass concrete gravity arch dam with earth-fill abutments and an un-gated spillway across the South Maroochy River that is located in the South East region of Queensland, Australia. The main purpose of the dam is for supply of potable water for the Sunshine Coast region. The impounded reservoir is also called Wappa Dam. The dam and most of the reservoir are within Kiamba with the most northerly part of the reservoir in Cooloolabin, both in the Sunshine Coast Region.
Tangjiashan Lake is a landslide dam-created lake on the Jian River, which was formed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its name comes from the nearby mountain Tangjiashan. On May 24, 2008, the water level rose by 2 metres in a single day, reaching a depth of 23 metres (75 ft), just 29 metres (95 ft) below the barrier level. On June 9, 2008, more than 250,000 people had been evacuated from Mianyang in anticipation of the Tangjiashan Lake dam bursting.
Lago di Pontesei is a lake in the Province of Belluno, Veneto, Italy.
Leopold Müller was a geologist, one of the pioneers of rock mechanics and one of the main contributors to the development of the New Austrian Tunnelling method.
The 2010 China floods began in early May 2010. Three hundred and ninety-two people died, and a further 232 people were reported missing as of June 30, 2010, including 57 people in a landslide in Guizhou. Fifty-three of the deaths occurred from the flooding and landslides between May 31 and June 3, and 266 deaths occurred between June 13 and June 29. Four hundred and twenty four people were killed by the end of June, including 42 from the Guizhou landslide; 277 more were killed and 147 were missing in the first two weeks of July, bringing the death toll as of August 5 to 1,072. A landslide in early August in Gansu killed at least 1,471 people and left 294 missing. In total, the flooding and landslides killed at least 3,185 people in China by August 31. More than 230 million people in 28 provinces, municipalities, and regions, especially the southern and central provinces and regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing Municipality, Gansu, Sichuan, and Guizhou, and the northeastern province of Jilin were affected, while at least 4.66 million people were evacuated because of the risk of flooding and landslides in the latter half of June. By early August, over 12 million people were evacuated, and that number rose to 15.2 million by August 31.
The Tauredunum event of 563 AD was a tsunami on Lake Geneva, triggered by a massive landslide which caused widespread devastation and loss of life along the lakeshore. According to two contemporary chroniclers, the disaster was caused by the collapse of a mountainside at a place called Tauredunum at the eastern end of Lake Geneva. It caused a great wave to sweep the length of the lake, sweeping away villages on the shoreline and striking the city of Geneva with such force that it washed over the city walls and killed many of the inhabitants.
Carlo Semenza was an Italian hydraulic engineer and mountaineer, considered one of the most experienced designers and manufacturers of dams in the era.
The Vajont is a 34 km long torrent in the Northern Italian Province of Pordenone flowing from Friuli Venezia Giulia to eastern Veneto. The stream has carved a narrow gorge over time, known as Vajont valley or Valle del Vajont.
