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Concept
Vajont Dam
Summary
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 . 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 for Public Works.
On 9 October 1963, during initial filling, a landslide caused a megatsunami in the lake in which of water overtopped the dam in a wave of , which brought massive flooding and destruction to the Piave Valley below, leading to the destruction of several villages and towns, causing an estimated 1,900 to 2,500 deaths. The dam remained almost intact and two-thirds of the water was retained behind it.
This event occurred after ENEL and the Italian government concealed reports and dismissed evidence that Monte Toc, on the southern side of the basin, was geologically unstable. They had disregarded numerous warnings, signs of danger, and negative appraisals. Underestimating the size of the landslide, ENEL's attempt to safely control the landslide by lowering the lake's level came when disaster was almost imminent.
The dam was built by Società Adriatica di Elettricità (SADE), the electricity supply and distribution monopoly in northeastern Italy. The owner, Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, had been Mussolini's minister of finances for several years. The "tallest dam in the world", across the Vajont Gorge, was conceived in the 1920s to harness the Piave, Mae, and Boite Rivers, to meet the growing demand for power generation and industrialization. The project was not authorized until 15 October 1943, after the confusion Mussolini's fall during World War II was resolved.
The dam wall had a volume of and held up to of water.
Official source
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