Lawn Lake Dam
Coordinates: 40 ° 27 ′ 51 ″ N , 105 ° 37 ′ 41 ″ W.
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The Lawn Lake Dam is a dam at Estes Park in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado , USA. He failed on July 15, 1982 when a dam broke. Three people died as a result of the tsunami and there was damage to property of between US $ 21 and 31 million.
The dam was built in 1903 at 11,000 feet (3300 m above sea level). It was a 24 foot (7.3 m) high earth dam, was used for irrigation and was operated by a private company.
On the morning of July 15 at 5:30 am, in normal weather conditions, the dam broke, releasing 700 acre-feet (863,437 m³) of water, which rushed down the valley with a peak discharge of 18,000 ft³ / s (510 m³ / s). The tidal wave was up to 35 feet (10.7 m) high and then poured into the shallower valley of the Fall River. There the flood was initially stopped by the Cascade dam. This gravity dam , built in 1908 and 17 feet (5.2 m) high , was flooded 4 feet (1.2 m) high and broke at 7:42 am in what is known as a " cascade breach ". The “Cascade Reservoir”, which just happened to be called, was rather small with a volume of 31,000 m³.
The cause is seen in a seal made of lead that connected a pipe to the valve body. The damaged seal allowed water to penetrate and erode the dam. The progressive internal erosion (so-called “ piping ”) led to the dam being washed away.