Tangjiashan Lake

Infobox_lake
lake_name = Tangjiashan Lake
image_lake = Tangjiashan Lake (map).pngcaption_lake = The lake as of June 3, 2008.
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location = Beichuan, Sichuan
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type = Barrier lake
inflow = Jian River
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basin_countries = China
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Tangjiashan Lake (Chinese: 唐家山堰塞湖) is a landslide dam-created lake on the Jian River, which was formed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its name comes from the nearby mountain Tangjiashan. On May 24, 2008 the water level rose by convert|2|m|0 in a single day, reaching a depth of convert|23|m|0, just convert|29|m|0 below the barrier level.Cite news | title = Backgrounder: Tangjiashan lake | url = http://www.cctv.com/english/20080526/107847.shtml | accessdate = 2008-05-28 | publisher = CCTV International] Cite news | title = 200,000 flee from growing Sichuan lake | last = Watts | first = Jonathan | date = 2008-05-30 | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/30/chinaearthquake.china1?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront | accessdate = 2008-05-30 | publisher = Guardian Unlimited] As of June 9, 2008 more than 250,000 people have been evacuated from Mianyang in anticipation of the Tangjiashan Lake dam bursting. [Cite news | title = More people being evacuated from swollen lake area in southwest China | date = 2008-05-27 | publisher = Xinhua News Agency | url = http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/27/content_8263743.htm | accessdate = 2008-05-27] [Cite news | title = Chinese quake lake still rising | date = 2008-06-09 | publisher = BBC News | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7443461.stm]

A similar lake in the same province that formed 222 years earlier caused one of the worst landslide-related disasters in history. On June 10, 1786 a landslide dam on Sichuan's Dadu River, created by an earthquake ten days earlier, burst and caused a flood that extended 1400 km downstream and killed 100,000 people. [Cite journal | last = Schuster | first = R.L. | coauthors = Wieczorek, G.F. | title = Landslide triggers and types | journal = Landslides: Proceedings of the First European Conference on Landslides | date = 2002 | publisher = A.A. Balkema Publishers | pages = 59–78 | url = http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=psFSK_nUqqMC&oi=fnd&pg=PT74&dq=%22Landslide+triggers+and+types%22&ots=baUoOVYLUt&sig=um_U7KZNRT_E5dadBfQ3DcE3ulQ]

A "relatively strong" aftershock on June 8, 2008 shook the massive earthquake-formed lake that has been threatening to flood more than 1 million people and triggered landslides in surrounding mountains. Soldiers used digging equipment, explosives, and even missiles to blast channels in the dam in an attempt to relieve the pressure behind it. [Cite news | title = Mapping the earthquake zone | publisher = BBC News | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7404614.stm|accessdate=2008-06-09]

The flow from the sluice channel cut into the dam increased dramatically on June 10, 2008, going from 300 cubic meters/second to 7000 cubic meters/second in the span of four hours. [Cite blog | last = Petley | first = Dave | title = Dave's Landslide Blog | date = 2008-06-10 | url= http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/ ] The muddy waters flowed rapidly downstream causing flooding in the evacuated town of Beichuan and overtopping of dams. [Cite news | title = Flooding spreads more destruction in town below 'quake lake' | last = Wong | first = Edward | date = 2008-06-10 | publisher = International Herald Tribune | url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/10/asia/quake.php]

See also

* Natural disasters in China

References