Three Gorges Dam under strain, millions evacuated

[Ths71 472]

Funny, just did the San Antonio to Vegas move/drive with the son in late September as he was Changing bases.  I've done the Hoover dam visit before (pre 9-11 when they showed you more behind the scene stuff I believe), it's pretty damned cool.  We hit Sedona, and the Grand Canyon on that last run.

Took this pic in the bowels when we toured pre 9/11


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Orange&White 5,528]

8 hours ago, woohorn said:

"When the Three Gorges Dam was built, 39 trillion kilograms of water from the Yangtze River built up behind it to 175 meters above sea level. This altered the Earth’s moment of inertia changed ever so slightly, causing the rotation to move more slowly. This is the same principle behind why figure skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster.

NASA has calculated that the dam only slows the rotation by 0.06 microseconds, which is six hundredths of a millionth of a second."
 

Something, something,...."Your Mom" joke ...

[clapclapclap 9,000]

59 minutes ago, Ths71 said:

Took this pic in the bowels when we toured pre 9/11

 Took this prior

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by clapclapclap

[Armybrat 40,851]

1 hour ago, Ths71 said:

Took this pic in the bowels when we toured pre 9/11


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

And this one at the end of the tour.....

 

[JBJ 3,655]

17 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

And regarding 100 year events.  It’s a misleading nomenclature because really we’re looking at percentage probabilities.  In addition, you’re looking at an area and a temporal distribution.  The worst flooding we’ve seen, like Houston, is a combination of the amount of rainfall and where it falls.  We design for a 1 percent event, over 24 hours, generally.  Does it mean those can’t occur more often?  Obviously not.  In addition, climate change is resulting in new data which shows extreme events may be larger than previously thought.  So the one percent rain depth in Austin went from 11 inches to about 13.5 in 24 hours.  That’s a big change. 

That's not even the complete picture.  A 100-year event is the 10th biggest year in 1,000 years. 

But there's usually not a spread of completely random events.  5 of the events might have all occured within a single decade because of some larger contributing event. 

So it's generally lower than a 1% chance of occuring on a given year, but might be much much higher during a contributing climate event.

[atomheartbevo 89,732]

On 7/19/2020 at 10:46 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I’m purely relying on opinions and writings of others, but I’ve heard commentators talk about how the first 30-40 years of the Chinese communist rule has shaped construction and why it’s failing. It’s all about initial appearances and meeting schedules. Quality and ongoing maintenance are low considerations. Let that be someone else’s problem.

Raising issues is a problem for anyone in a bureaucracy but becomes toxic in a country with such deep bureaucracy.

even if modern China is trying to become more responsive to problems, earlier regimes drove home the message to not identify problems.

I could be wrong, but with covid, I got the impression that the local leaders underestimated/refused to listen to the docs, then when shit blew up, they tried to cover it up from their superiors/outside world, rather than try to address the actual problem.  They did not seem to care much about the actual problem itself, but more about making sure they didn't take the fall for it.

And this is what a lot of friends and a family member who have traveled to China for business have observed.  The bureaucracy drives everything.

[Captainant 27,680]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I could be wrong, but with covid, I got the impression that the local leaders underestimated/refused to listen to the docs, then when shit blew up, they tried to cover it up from their superiors/outside world, rather than try to address the actual problem.  They did not seem to care much about the actual problem itself, but more about making sure they didn't take the fall for it.

You talkin' China or US there?

[atomheartbevo 89,732]

3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

You talkin' China or US there?

[elfenix 34,318]

3 hours ago, Ths71 said:

Took this pic in the bowels when we toured pre 9/11


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

south austin's mom after a good scrubbing

[Revolution512 1,489]

19 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Not in my opinion, if anything its getting more expensive, and more over sight/ regulations in construction in our region at least, and in other places around the country where I've worked .

Yep

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,515]

51 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I could be wrong, but with covid, I got the impression that the local leaders underestimated/refused to listen to the docs, then when shit blew up, they tried to cover it up from their superiors/outside world, rather than try to address the actual problem.  They did not seem to care much about the actual problem itself, but more about making sure they didn't take the fall for it.

And this is what a lot of friends and a family member who have traveled to China for business have observed.  The bureaucracy drives everything.

When the potential penalties for mismanagement include long prison sentences, no one is going to scream about a problem. Better to ignore them and when the problem becomes inevitable, step out of the way of the hammer that is about to fall. I've worked in companies where this is standard operating procedure, even while top mgmt is stating that the direct opposite is true.

Ultimately a dam system has its limits and if conditions cause it to hit the limits, you need to have methods to release water regardless of the downstream consequences. You can't let the dam itself fail which will create worse downstream conditions. If this was underestimated during the build, then maybe more people need to be permanently moved.

[JohnLocke 115]

Conversation in Chinese construction company board room:

"We can't meet our schedule because we can't get enough cement for the concrete!"

"We can meet our schedule and save millions if we use 10% clay in place of cement!!"

"That's a great plan...nobody will every know..........unless.........well, we don't have time to worry about that"

 

[atomheartbevo 89,732]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If this was underestimated during the build, then maybe more people need to be permanently moved.

Oh, there's going to be plenty of people permanently moved underground.  In trees.  On the bottom of temporary rivers.

And I'm sure plenty of officials will also be permanently moved underground.

[Murfdogg21 4,413]

Don’t worry. China will give us an accurate count of all 3 people who will die. 

[SquishMitten 10,415]

Prepare to "spring forward" .06 microseconds if the dam blows..

"When the Three Gorges Dam was built, 39 trillion kilograms of water from the Yangtze River built up behind it to 175 meters above sea level. This altered the Earth’s moment of inertia changed ever so slightly, causing the rotation to move more slowly. This is the same principle behind why figure skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster.

NASA has calculated that the dam only slows the rotation by 0.06 microseconds, which is six hundredths of a millionth of a second."

https://www.kinetica.co.uk/2014/03/27/chinese-dam-slows-down-earths-rotation/

If slowly damning the water had an observable impact on the Earth’s rotation, I can’t imagine what an abrupt release might do. Are we all going to get flung into space? I’m going to tether myself to some pipes Twister-style just to be safe.

[Hate 20,115]

So would this thing either hurry up and not fail or hurry up and fail?? The anticipation sucks.

[woohorn 1,131]

Interesting idea of weighing bridges down. Also shows how much faith they have in their bridge construction quality.

[davidg 4,038]

Would tether my pipe to mid-90s Helen Hunt regardless if it was safe or not.

[Orange&White 5,528]

6 minutes ago, woohorn said:

Interesting idea of weighing bridges down. Also shows how much faith they have in their bridge construction quality.

And how much faith they have in their dam construction quality.

[phdhorn 6,224]

15 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

If slowly damning the water had an observable impact on the Earth’s rotation, I can’t imagine what an abrupt release might do. Are we all going to get flung into space? I’m going to tether myself to some pipes Twister-style just to be safe.

LOL I thought that that scene was one of the most abjectly stupid things ever to hit the Silver Screen, and kinda dangerous to boot.  Trust me, if you tried to ride out a monster F5 by tethering yourself to something, the winds would slice you in half pretty much like buttah.  Not to mention that no belt would be able to withstand those kind of winds.  And the force of things hitting you would absolutely destroy anything protecting you and also pretty much vaporize you.  Other than that it was accurate.

It's not by coincidence that the only things left after an F5 goes over them are foundation slabs, and often they get pulled up and disintegrated as well.  So do the math.. an F5 will pull concrete from its rebar roots but hey, tie a lil' belt around us and we'll be fine.  Good god what a joke.

That said, I also thought Helen Hunt in the 90's was spectacular and if I did this scene, I would insist on 320 retakes.

Edit: I have naming rights to the "One Bigass Gorge"  for the current area after the dam goes.

Edited July 21, 2020 by phdhorn

[Trey3216 15,347]

10 minutes ago, Hate said:

So would this thing either hurry up and not fail or hurry up and fail?? The anticipation sucks.

One things for certain:  Unlike the banks, this thing is not too big to fail.  

[crash_davis 23,113]

1 minute ago, Trey3216 said:

One things for certain:  Unlike the banks, this thing is not too big to fail.  

China: The dam did not fail. This is an improvement project. Everything was planned.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

25 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

Edit: I have naming rights to the "One Bigass Gorge"  for the current area after the dam goes.

Maybe the Chinese will have their own "Grand Canyon" and we can all go over there in huge groups and take pictures.

[ztejas 43,479]

1 hour ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Don’t worry. China will give us an accurate count of all 3 people who will die. 

They all had preexisting conditions anyway.

[Armybrat 40,851]

26 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Maybe the Chinese will have their own "Grand Canyon" and we can all go over there in huge groups and take pictures.

Too bad Evel Knievel ain’t around.

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

6 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Too bad Evel Knievel ain’t around.

[Pescado_Rojo 19,424]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

So would this thing either hurry up and not fail or hurry up and fail?? The anticipation sucks.

[gsoda3 3,263]

1 hour ago, woohorn said:

Interesting idea of weighing bridges down. Also shows how much faith they have in their bridge construction quality.
 

i wonder how much that would really help.  wouldn't they be better off throwing that cargo into the water at the base of the piers...

[1978horn 893]

1 hour ago, woohorn said:

Interesting idea of weighing bridges down. Also shows how much faith they have in their bridge construction quality.

Is this like when you put a bunch of books on top of something you just glued together hoping it stays together?

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

6 minutes ago, 1978horn said:

Is this like when you put a bunch of books on top of something you just glued together hoping it stays together?

Except there isn't flood water washing out the foundations of the building under the freshly glued object under the books.  Other than that it's exactly the same concept.

[Sandman 3,403]

2 hours ago, Hate said:

So would this thing either hurry up and not fail or hurry up and fail?? The anticipation sucks.

 

[Parliament 14,261]

Interesting idea of weighing bridges down. Also shows how much faith they have in their bridge construction quality.

That's down to railroad bridges in the US pretty often.

[Bevo 13,579]

16 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Except there isn't flood water washing out the foundations of the building under the freshly glued object under the books.  Other than that it's exactly the same concept.

What's the big deal? It just makes the video of the upcoming collapse more entertaining.

[AUS-97HORN 11,809]

for reference what thats gonna look like.....

start at the 1:50 mark

 

 

[Trey3216 15,347]

20 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

for reference what thats gonna look like.....

start at the 1:50 mark

 

 

Guilty Pleasure movie there 

[InkaUtexas 25,993]

Yep, a good one for sure. 

[ABSR 5,315]

2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

China: The dam did not fail. This is an improvement project. Everything was planned.

COVID population control project was not successful enough, so now they are starting up their spontaneous inland sea creation strategy.  Everything is according to plan!

[InkaUtexas 25,993]

maybe they need the sediment downriver to make more islands. 

[Brisketexan 105,158]

Where did all this excess liquid come from?

Sources are citing both pee pee, and cokes.

[workswithseed 2,112]

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Where did all this excess liquid come from?

Sources are citing both pee pee, and cokes.

Japan has had enough over the South China Sea dispute, and now giving it to them directly.

[Doc Reeves 6,434]

52 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Where did all this excess liquid come from?

Sources are citing both pee pee, and cokes.

Man, I laughed at this and if that dam goes I’m for sure going to hell. 

[Homesickhorn 2,202]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Where did all this excess liquid come from?

Sources are citing both pee pee, and cokes.

Fucking beat me to it.  I was waiting to see where it could be placed, and you fucking nailed it.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Homesickhorn

[Dnaguy 12,002]

 

Clark Griswald at it again.

National Lampoon's Chinese Vacation

[CycleTex87 2,972]

On 7/20/2020 at 2:08 PM, JohnLocke said:

Conversation in Chinese construction company board room:

"We can't meet our schedule because we can't get enough cement for the concrete!"

"We can meet our schedule and save millions if we use 10% clay in place of cement!!"

"That's a great plan...nobody will every know..........unless.........well, we don't have time to worry about that"

 

..."and don't call me Surely"

[Parliament 14,261]

"Deformed slightly." Just slightly.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/07/three-gorges-dam-deformed-but-safe-say-operators/

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

"deformed slightly"

[Captainant 27,680]

5 minutes ago, Parliament said:

"Deformed slightly." Just slightly.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/07/three-gorges-dam-deformed-but-safe-say-operators/

Well it's ok, everyone knows that concrete deals really well with permanent deformation after a load higher than it was designed for

[Dnaguy 12,002]

3 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

"deformed slightly"

 

I don't get it

[Captainant 27,680]

Huh, just realized from reading the article linked by Parliament that the dam's failure would imperil Wuhan. That's some biblical shit, wash away the origin of the pandemic with a flood?

2020's writers are really swinging for the fences

[workswithseed 2,112]

11 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Huh, just realized from reading the article linked by Parliament that the dam's failure would imperil Wuhan. That's some biblical shit, wash away the origin of the pandemic with a flood?

2020's writers are really swinging for the fences

Does that mean the flood will spread all across the world? God lied to us!