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Malpasset Dam
The Malpasset Dam was an arch dam (convex surface facing upstream) on the Reyran, Reyran River, north of Fréjus on the French Riviera. It collapsed on 2 December 1959, killing 423 people in the resulting flood. The breach was caused by a tectonic fault in the impermeable rock base, which had been inadequately surveyed. Nearby road-building works, using explosives, may also have contributed to the disaster. Construction The structure was a doubly curved, equal-angle, arch-type dam with variable radius. It was built to supply drinking and irrigation water for the region. Construction began in April 1952 and was finished in 1954. Another source reported that construction began as early as 1941. Delays due to lack of funding and labor strikes interrupted construction a few times. The project was led by well-known French engineer Andre Coyne, André Coyne. Construction cost 580 million francs (by 1955 prices), and was funded and owned by Var (département), Var Département in France, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reyran
The Reyran is a torrent (stream), torrent in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France and a tributary of the Argens. This ephemeral stream is 26.8 km long, originating in Bagnols-en-Forêt in the Var, 12 km from Fréjus. The Reyran flows for approximately three months of the year and can be dry the rest of the time, with a very irregular flow. The annual rate is 22.70 million but can reach as low as 15.75 million once every 30 years. The flow rate is highest during the months of December, January, and April, and sometimes zero during July and August. During the summer months, the riverbed may present a series of isolated ponds that decrease in size daily. The bed of the Reyran consists of coarse sand and gravel up to 30–40 cm, with a lithology of surrounding rocks including sandstone, gneiss, pegmatite, and volcanic rocks. Fréjus The Reyran is piped through the city of Fréjus via a concrete canal built after the Malpass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manitou Springs
Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers, particularly in the summer, with many shops and restaurants, as well as a creekside city park. The main road through the center of town was one of the direct paths to the base of Pikes Peak. Barr Trail, which winds its way up Pikes Peak, is accessible from town. The subdivision Crystal Hills was added to the municipality in the 1960s. The city population was 4,858 at the 2020 United States census. Students are served by Manitou Springs School District 14 and Manitou Springs High School. History General William Jackson Palmer and Dr. William Abraham Bell founded Manitou Springs in 1872, intending the town to be a "scenic health resort". Bell's home, Briarhurst Manor, is open to the public as a fine dining restaurant, which is list ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1959 In France
Events from the year 1959 in France. Incumbents *President: Rene Coty (until 8 January), Charles de Gaulle (starting 8 January) *Prime Minister: Charles de Gaulle (until 8 January), Michel Debré (starting 8 January) Events *8 January – Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic. *2 December – The Malpasset Dam collapses and floods the town of Fréjus, killing 412. Arts and literature *11 March – Eurovision Song Contest held in Cannes. *29 October – Astérix the Gaul makes a first appearance in the first regular issue of the comic magazine ''Pilote''. Sport *25 June – 1959 Tour de France begins. *18 July – 1959 Tour de France ends, won by Federico Bahamontes of Spain, the first Spanish cyclist to win the Tour de France. Births *1 January – Michel Onfray, philosopher and author *7 February – Christine Angot, novelist and playwright *18 March – Luc Besson, film director, writer and producer *1 May – Yasmina Reza, playwrig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arch Dams
An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but structural load-bearing arches became popular only after their adoption by the Ancient Romans in the 4th century BC. Arch-like structures can be horizontal, like an arch dam that withstands the horizontal hydrostatic pressure load. Arches are usually used as supports for many types of vaults, with the barrel vault in particular being a continuous arch. Extensive use of arches and vaults characterizes an arcuated construction, as opposed to the trabeated system, where, like in the architectures of ancient Greece, China, and Japan (as well as the modern steel-framed technique), posts and beams dominate. Arches had several advantages over the lintel, especially in the masonry construction: with the same amount of material it can have larger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man-made Disasters In France
Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality often carries with it the implication of being false, counterfeit, or deceptive. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his ''Rhetoric'': However, artificiality does not necessarily have a negative connotation, as it may also reflect the ability of humans to replicate forms or functions arising in nature, as with an artificial heart or artificial intelligence. Political scientist and artificial intelligence expert Herbert A. Simon observes that "some artificial things are imitations of things in nature, and the imitation may use either the same basic materials as those in the natural object or quite different materials.Herbert A. Simon, ''The Sciences of the Artificial'' (1996), p. 4. Simon distinguishes between the artific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1959 Disasters In France
Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the vicinity of Earth's Moon, where it was intended to crash-land, but instead becomes the first spacecraft to go into heliocentric orbit. * January 3 ** Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. ** The southernmost island of the Maldives archipelago, Addu Atoll, declares its independence from the Kingdom of the Maldives, initiating the United Suvadive Republic. * January 4 ** In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city of Havana. ** Léopoldville riots: At least 49 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the ABAKO Party in Kinshasa, Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. * January 6 – The International Maritime Organization is inaugurated. * January 7 – The United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Var (department)
A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see ''Nonbuilding structure'' for contrast. Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the ''outside'' (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times). buildings have been objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In France
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be ''on-stream reservoirs'', which are located on the original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by creeks, rivers or rainwater that runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or ''off-stream reservoirs'', which receive diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct or pipeline water from other on-stream reservoirs. Dams are typically lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dams In France
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability. Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect or store water which can be evenly distributed between locations. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. The word ''dam'' can be traced back to Middle English, and before that, from Middle Dutch, as seen in the names of many old cities, such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Ancient dams were built in Mesopotamia and the Middle East for water control. The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, dating to 3,000 BC. Egyptians also built dams, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vajont Dam
The Vajont Dam or Vaiont Dam is a disused hydro-electric dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of . It is in the valley of the Vajont (river) under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, north of Venice. The dam was conceived in the 1920s and eventually built between 1957 and 1960 by Società Adriatica di Elettricità, at the time the electricity supply and distribution monopoly in northeastern Italy. The engineer was Carlo Semenza (1893–1961). In 1962, the dam was nationalized and came under the control of ENEL as part of the Italian Ministry of Public Works. On 9 October 1963, during initial filling of the lake, a landslide caused a megatsunami in which of water overtopped the dam in a wave of , bringing massive flooding and destruction to the Piave Valley below, destroying several villages and towns, causing an estimated 1,900 to 2,500 deaths. The dam itself remained almost intact and two-thirds of the water ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Hydroelectric Power Station Failures
This is a list of major hydroelectric power station failures due to damage to a hydroelectric power station or its connections. Every generating station trips from time to time due to minor defects and can usually be restarted when the defect has been remedied. Various protections are built into the stations to cause shutdown before major damage is caused. Some hydroelectric power station failures may go beyond the immediate loss of generation capacity, including destruction of the turbine itself, reservoir breach and significant destruction of national grid infrastructure downstream. These can take years to remedy in some cases. Where a generating station is large compared to the connected grid capacity, any failure can cause extensive disruption within the network. A serious failure in a proportionally large hydroelectric generating station or its associated transmission line will remove a large block of power from the grid that may lead to widespread disturbances. List ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Natural Disasters By Death Toll
A natural disaster is a sudden event that causes widespread destruction, major collateral damage, or loss of life, brought about by forces other than the acts of human beings. A natural disaster might be caused by earthquakes, flooding, volcanic eruption, landslide, hurricanes, etc. To be classified as a disaster, it must have profound environmental effects and/or loss of life and frequently causes financial loss. Ten deadliest natural disasters by highest estimated death toll excluding epidemics and famines This list takes into account only the highest estimated death toll for each disaster and lists them accordingly. It does not include List of epidemics and pandemics, epidemics and List of famines, famines. The list also does not include the 1938 Yellow River flood, which was caused by the deliberate destruction of dikes. The Shaanxi earthquake has not been included here which killed approximately 830,000 people in 1556. Deadliest natural disasters by year excluding epide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
