ididitfirst Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 As Iraqi forces continue their battle against ISIS in Mosul, there's another problem lurking just 25 miles away from the embattled city: the Mosul Dam, a structure the US Army Corps of Engineers has called the "most dangerous dam in the world," per a piece by Dexter Filkins in the January 2 New Yorker. It's not the dam itself that has both American and Iraqi officials worried: It's that the structure is built on void-prone gypsum rock, which needs constant cement injections; without that fortification, the ground underneath the dam will be whisked away and the dam will sink and crumble. When the dam was being built, experts assured then-leader Saddam Hussein the gypsum problem could be managed, and the Mosul Dam was completed in the mid-'80s—but structural problems were immediately evident. After the US invasion in 2003, Americans tried to spur the Iraqis to further fortify the dam, but they were (and still are) met with runaround. "The Americans are exaggerating," the dam's director scoffs. "This dam is not going to collapse. Everything is going to be fine." Most of the dam's workers fled when ISIS took over the dam and the Mosul grout plant in 2014, and even though Kurdish forces retook the dam, grouting stopped for anywhere from three weeks to 18 months, based on conflicting stories. Now there's the extra pressure that will likely be put on the retaining wall as winter snow melts in the spring. And if the dam does break down? There could be a "catastrophe of Biblical proportions" in the form of an enormous wave towering up to 100 feet above the Tigris River and sweeping up all within a hundred miles. It would submerge much of Mosul, which would be hard to evacuate due to its ISIS stranglehold. Baghdad would also feel the effects within days from a 16-foot-high wave slamming into it. And the entire country would likely be left without power and see most of its wheat fields flooded. Total death toll: up to a million and a half people. "It's a nuclear bomb with an unpredictable fuse," an Iraqi-American civil engineer says. Read more of Filkins' piece on this looming disaster at the New Yorker. ..... i hope my dinar will not drown 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four wheel drift Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 Italians have been guarding it for the last couple yrs. FWD GO RV 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregp Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 36 minutes ago, four wheel drift said: Italians have been guarding it for the last couple yrs. FWD GO RV We're safe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four wheel drift Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 18 minutes ago, gregp said: We're safe! Just because they put screen doors on their submarines doesn't mean they're not forward thinkers. FWD GO RV 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregp Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 minute ago, four wheel drift said: Just because they put screen doors on their submarines doesn't mean they're not forward thinkers. FWD GO RV Amen. I'm glad America is out. We've screwed up enougj lately. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandfly Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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