Today I went looking for the Toarcian Ocean Anoxic Event (TOAE) in a deep water section: Longarone.
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| Chert! |
Longarone is a (geologically) famous town because 50 years ago a massive wall of water came over the dam and wiped out 80% of the town (1800 fatalities). It is a sad case of a geological failure (and a structural win in same ways).
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| Top of the dam! |
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| The Dam (from above) |
After some smaller landslides, earlier in the month, on Oct. 9 1963, there was a massive slump and half the mountain (Monte Toc?) slid into the reservoir behind the dam, displacing most of the water.
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| Slump Scar |
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| The Slump! |
Sadly, the only direction for the water to go was over the 262m dam (which held, by the way), and crash into the town of Longarone and the other villages in the valley.
50 years later the reservoir is no more, now the lake is higher up the valley, damed by the massive slip that filled in the valley. The Vajont dam is inactive but serves as a strong reminder of the damage that can be done by inadequate geology!
I now feel like I need to try harder (fortunately paleontology rarely has as high a price for failure as Geo engineering)! For more information, check out this blog: www.landslideblog.org
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