Malpasset Dam - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Malpasset_Dam

Coordinates: 433043.48N 64523.40E

Malpasset Dam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Malpasset Dam was an arch dam on the Reyran

River, located approximately 7 km north of Frjus on
the French Riviera (Cte d'Azur), southern France, in
the Var dpartement. It collapsed on December 2, 1959,
killing 423 people in the resulting flood.[1][2] The
damage amounted to an equivalent total of $68 million.

Contents
1 Construction
2 Disaster
3 Cause The ruins of the dam
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Construction
The dam was a doubly curved equal angle arch type with variable radius. It was built to supply drinking and
irrigation water for the region. Construction began in April 1952 and was finished in 1954. Another source
reports that construction began as early as 1941. Delays due to lack of funding and labor strikes interrupted
construction a few times. The project was led by well-known French engineer Andr Coyne. Construction
cost 580 million francs (by 1955 prices), and was funded and owned by Var dpartement. Concurrent with
the dam construction, the A8 autoroute was also being built 1,400 meters further down the course of the
Reyran from the dam location.

Disaster
The dam was breached at 21:13 on December 2, 1959. The entire wall collapsed with only a few blocks
remaining on the right bank. Pieces of the dam are still scattered throughout the area.

The breach created a massive dam break wave, or wall of water, 40 metres (130 ft) high and moving at 70
kilometres (43 mi) per hour, destroying two small villages, Malpasset and Bozon, the highway construction
site, and in 20 minutes, still standing 3 metres (10 ft) high, reaching Frjus. Various small roads and railroad
tracks were also destroyed, water flooding the western half of Frjus and finally reaching the sea.

Cause
Geological and hydrological studies were conducted in 1946 and the dam location was considered suitable.
Due to lack of proper funding, however, the geological study of the region was not thorough. The lithology
underlying the dam is a metamorphic rock called gneiss. This rock type is known to be relatively
impermeable, meaning that there is no significant groundwater flow within the rock unit, and it does not
allow water to penetrate the ground. On the right side (looking down the river), was also rock, and a
concrete wing wall was constructed to connect the wall to the ground.

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A tectonic fault was later found as the most likely cause of the disaster. Other factors contributed as well;
the water pressure was aimed diagonally towards the dam wall, and was not found initially. As a
consequence, water collected under a wall and was unable to escape through the ground due to the
impermeability of the gneiss rock underneath the dam. Finally, another theory quotes a source stating that
explosions during building of the highway might have caused shifting of the rock base of the dam. Weeks
before the breach, some cracking noises were heard, but they were not examined. It is not clear when the
cracking noises started. The right side of the dam had some leaks in November 1959.

Between November 19 and December 2, there was 50 centimetres (20 in) of rainfall, and 13 centimetres
(5.1 in) in 24 hours before the breach. The water level in the dam was only 28 centimetres (11 in) away from
the edge. Rain continued, and the dam guardian wanted to open the discharge valves, but the authorities
refused, claiming the highway construction site was in danger of flooding. Five hours before the breach, at
18:00 hours, the water release valves were opened, but with a discharge rate of 40 m/s, it was not enough to
empty the reservoir in time.

Until the Malpasset incident, only 4 other incidents of arch-type dam breaches were recorded:

Manitou dam, Manitou Springs, Colorado, 1924 at 385235.47N 1045938.30W

Moyie Dam (the Eileen Dam), Moyie Springs, Idaho, 1925 at 48.77550N 116.15514W
Lake Lanier, North Carolina, 1926
Purisima dam, California, 1930

See also
List of natural disasters by death toll - Floods and Landslides
List of hydroelectric power station failures

List of wars and disasters by death toll - Flood disasters

Vajont Dam

References
1. The Malpasset Catastrophe in 1959 (http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_french/malpasset
/malpasset.htm)
2. 1999 documentary in French with interviews and footage of the disaster (https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=5mAh3Bt9bQk)

J. Bellier, Le barrage de Malpasset, 1967

Max Herzog, Elementare Talsperrenstatik, 1998
Max Herzog, Bautechnik 67 Heft 12, 1990

External links
Cracking of dams (http://simscience.org/cracks/intermediate
Wikimedia Commons has
/malpasset.html) media related to Malpasset
Website dedicated to the disaster of Malpasset Dam.
(http://frejus59.fr/en)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malpasset_Dam&oldid=763832851"

Categories: Dam failures Dams in France Reservoirs in France

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Malpasset Dam - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malpasset_Dam

Buildings and structures in Var (department) 1959 disasters Disasters in France Arch dams
1959 in France Dams completed in 1954 Floods in France
Landforms of Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur

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