Vajont (river)
| Vajont | ||
 Damming in front of the rubble mountain in the former Vajont reservoir (looking east, photo from Sep. 2009) |
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| Data | ||
| location | Veneto , Friuli Venezia Giulia , Italy | |
| River system | Piave | |
| Drain over | Piave → Upper Adriatic | |
| River basin district | Alpi Orientali | |
| source | in the Belluno Prealps 46 ° 14 ′ 30 ″ N , 12 ° 23 ′ 21 ″ E |
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| Source height | approx. 900 m slm | |
| muzzle | in the municipality of Longarone in the Piave coordinates: 46 ° 15 ′ 55 " N , 12 ° 18 ′ 34" E 46 ° 15 ′ 55 " N , 12 ° 18 ′ 34" E |
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| Mouth height | 473 m slm | |
| Height difference | approx. 427 m | |
| Bottom slope | approx. 43 ‰ | |
| length | 10 km | |
| Navigable | No | |
The Vajont is a left, approx. 10 km long tributary of the Piave in Veneto from the autonomous region of Friuli northeast of Belluno . Its mouth is 473 m slm in the municipality of Longarone . It rises at an altitude of around 900 m.
The Vajont comes from the east from the Southern Carnic Alps , the Belluneser Voralpen (Venetianer Voralpen). Its highest peak is the Col Nudo with 2472 m slm . The Vajont belongs to the torrenti (torrent) . It has a narrow, deeply incised bed partly filled with rubble, the Italian name of the gorge is " Val Vajont ". In its valley, the SS 251 runs eastwards from Longarone through Erto e Casso to Cimolais . In Erto the valley of the Torrente Pezzeit flows into the Vajont from the north . To the east of Erto, near San Martino, the road follows the Tuara Valley further east over the Passo di San Osvaldo .
The river valley of the Vajont comes from the south, from the Col Nudo. There arise two streams of roughly the same length, the western one of which bears the name; the eastern one is called Rio Frugna. The Rnetto rises to the west of the valley. The Vajont flows in an arc to the northwest around Monte Toc . The devastating landslide detached itself from its northern flank in 1963, causing the reservoir, which had been filled on a trial basis, to suddenly overflow. The dam is located below the Casso district. Opposite her lies the hill formed by the landslide in the valley.
The Piave, into which the Vajont flows, flows between the Dolomites and the Southern Carnic Alps through the Cadore (Val Serpentine) in a north-south direction to the upper Adriatic Sea (mouth at Jésolo , east of Venice ). In relation to the Alps , the river catchment area is the southern edge of the Eastern Alps and an important north-south passage (Germany, Austria, Italy).
history
The border between the Italian administrative units Veneto and Friuli runs roughly on the left bank of the Piave. The tributary to the Piave is already in the Veneto; but the river itself drains almost entirely in the Friuli area.
1956 to 1960 the river valley was built with a dam (height 261.60 m). A reservoir with a volume of 152 million cubic meters of water was to be created to generate electricity . The operator was the company SADE (Società Adriatica di Elettricità). On October 9, 1963, many inhabitants of the valley, including almost the entire population of the municipality of Longarone, were killed by the consequences of a landslide from Monte Toc into the artificial, trial-filled reservoir. Around 2000 deaths occurred in the valley communities. The dam itself remained intact and still exists today.
- See the main article Disaster of Longarone (in Italian it is called: Disaster of the Vajont )
