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Nov 4, 2021
The May 19, 2020, Failure of Edenville Dam near Midland, Michigan
Authors: Daniel Pradel, Ph.D. [email protected], Adam Lobbestael, Ph.D. [email protected], Colin N. Brooks, Ph.D. [email protected], Richard Dobson [email protected], Nicholas Marion [email protected], Thomas Oommen, Ph.D. [email protected], Alan J. Esser, P.E., [email protected], … Show All … , Adda Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, Ph.D. [email protected], Dimitrios Zekkos, Ph.D. [email protected], Marin Clark, Ph.D. [email protected], Kirk Townsend [email protected], Nathan Niemi, Ph.D. [email protected] , Nik Midttun [email protected], and Madeline Hille [email protected] Show FewerAuthor Affiliations
Publication: Geo-Extreme 2021
ABSTRACT
On May 19, 2020, after several days of heavy precipitation, two earth dams failed (Edenville and Sanford) and two other dams were damaged (Secord and Smallwood), north of the town of Midland, MI. The failures resulted in about $100M in damages and the evacuation of about 11,000 people during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this destructive event, the Geo-Institute Embankment, Dams, and Slopes Technical Committee organized a team with the main objective of capturing perishable data. The Edenville Dam site was of interest because the slope failure was captured on video and occurred prior to the dam being overtopped. Based on our observations, investigation and analyses, two failure mechanisms were considered likely for Edenville Dam: (1) static liquefaction (similar to 2019 failure of Brumadinho Dam in Brazil); and (2) slope instability, where the slide debris which was contractive in nature, expelled pore water in the form of water jets and flowed as it became liquefied along the toe of the dam.
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REFERENCES
Proctor, R. R. (1932), “Fundamental principles of soil compaction”, Engineering News Record, Vol. III, Nos. 9, 10, 12, and 13, New York, NY.
YouTube. (2019), “Brumadinho Dam Collapse footage in Brazil on January 25, 2019”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adk0AwcISHo.
YouTube. (2020), “Video taken by local resident on May 19, 2020 of the failure of Edenville Dam, Courtesy of Lynn Coleman”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc3u_CHVHJ8.
Robertson, P. K., de Melo, L., Williams, D. J., Wilson, G. W. (2019), “Report of the Expert Panel on the Technical Causes of the Failure of Feijão Dam I”, dated December 12, 2019 https://bdrb1investigationstacc.z15.web.core.windows.net/assets/Feijao-Dam-I-Expert-Panel-Report-ENG.pdf.
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Published online: Nov 4, 2021
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1Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH. Email: [email protected]
P.E.
2NTH Consultants, Ltd., Detroit, MI. Email: [email protected]
3Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Technological Univ., Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
4Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Technological Univ., Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
5Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Technological Univ., Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
6Geological Mining Engineering and Sciences, Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI. Email: [email protected]
D.GE
7SME, Kirtland, OH. Email: [email protected]
8Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Email: [email protected]
9Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Email: [email protected]
10Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
11Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
12Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
13Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
14Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Email: [email protected]
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