China blows up temporary barrier of three gorges dam.

June 6, 2006 5:28 AM

Using enough explosives to topple 400 10-storey buildings, China has blown up [bbc news .asx file] a temporary barrier used to hold water back from the controversial Three Gorges Dam.
posted by tnai (36 comments total)

Well, that's a great leap forward.
posted by pracowity at 5:42 AM on June 6, 2006

There's a joke in there somewhere about Dam and Blast. But I'm not man enough to make it.
posted by Jofus at 6:07 AM on June 6, 2006

I read somewhere that it is the second largest displacement of people in history. Second only to when early Americans displaced most of the indians to heaven.
posted by Mr_Zero at 6:11 AM on June 6, 2006

Re-enacting the good ole Dambusters would have been way more fun.

Actually, why did they need so many charges and not just one in the middle somewhere?
posted by 13twelve at 6:12 AM on June 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

China has blown up

And we know for certain it was not Al Qaida?
posted by three blind mice at 6:12 AM on June 6, 2006

Mmmm.... fun blow-uppy video goodness.
posted by antifuse at 6:16 AM on June 6, 2006

Second only to when early Americans displaced most of the indians to heaven.

Second place? I know the competition to be number one, but "early Americans" are no way number two when it comes to numbers of displaced and murdered indigents.

Are you disqualifying Stalin and Mao based on steroid use?
posted by three blind mice at 6:25 AM on June 6, 2006

400 10-storey buildings

don't you mean 4 1000-storey buildings? i can picture that better.
posted by Hat Maui at 6:29 AM on June 6, 2006

Actually, why did they need so many charges and not just one in the middle somewhere?

Inertia and safety. It's hard to get a big dam to move if it is well built, and one big charge would blow a little hole, but throw the bits a long way, while several small charges would make several holes where the bits don't travel far at all.

Dams are surprisingly tough. What causes them to fail is usually problems at the achoranges and base allowing the whole dam to move, not just holes in them. The WWII dambusters sqaudron attacked four dams in the inital attack with the famous bouncing bombs, each had 6600 pounds of torpex. Despite multiple hits, two of the dams didn't fail, and the two that did were repaired and generating electricity before the war ended.
posted by eriko at 6:35 AM on June 6, 2006

Besides what eriko said you don't want the thing to be a hazard to navigation.
posted by Mitheral at 6:46 AM on June 6, 2006

3BM...
I think the American settlers get the nod due to their early use of biological agents ( tuberculosis, smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, etc.)
posted by Thorzdad at 7:32 AM on June 6, 2006

> you don't want the thing to be a hazard to navigation.

Dams are made of Flash? Interesting!
posted by jfuller at 7:51 AM on June 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

What a shame.
posted by delmoi at 8:22 AM on June 6, 2006

Second place? I know the competition to be number one, but "early Americans" are no way number two when it comes to numbers of displaced and murdered indigents.

First of all did you mean "indigenous peoples"? "indigents" means something else.

Secondly, no one really knows how many Indians were here before the white man came. Estimates range from 1 to 100 million. What I've read seems to indicate it was on the low end, though.
posted by delmoi at 8:26 AM on June 6, 2006

While the technological aspects are impressive [though it may turn out to be, in the end, not so well-designed], the social costs are overwhelming. It's really quite sad.

Cool video though. boom!boom!boom!boom!boom!ssssssshhhhhhhhhh.
posted by exlotuseater at 8:29 AM on June 6, 2006

What does it mean when I get this message?

Windows Media Player cannot play the file because the specified protocol is not supported. If you typed a URL in the Open URL dialog box, try using a different transport protocol (for example, "http:" or "rtsp:").
posted by wsg at 8:54 AM on June 6, 2006

I'm sure everyone will say it was worth it when the damn silts up to the point of being useless in thirty years.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:55 AM on June 6, 2006

I would assume that the largest displacement in history would be the mess related to the partition of India at independence. Though it's impossible to know for sure without knowing what the statement that China and the dam is #2 means, exactly.
posted by nflorin at 9:03 AM on June 6, 2006

More on displacements:

The article states that the dam displaced 1.9 million people. The various conflicts in Columbia, for example, have displaced something like 2.7 million people. Darfur has about 2.5 million displaced. There were something like 16 million displaced persons in Europe after World War II. The previously mentioned Partition led to about 15 million refugees. These are just randomly searched-for examples.

The only way that the Three Gorges Dam could have caused the second-largest displacement in history is if by "displacement" you mean a single moving of people for something like a single construction site and so on, which is possible: the Aswan High Dam displaced 90,000 people and was considered a huge mess at the time. I have no idea what would be first.

The point, and it's a minor one, is that Columbian Exchange can't possibly be called the greatest displacement in history, but must remain as what population geographers call it: the greatest demographic catastrophe in history.
posted by nflorin at 9:19 AM on June 6, 2006

nflorin: that would be the various conflicts in Colombia...
posted by antifuse at 9:22 AM on June 6, 2006

sorry, but it drives me CRAZY when people spell the country's name wrong
posted by antifuse at 9:22 AM on June 6, 2006

antifuse: what are you talking about? Because nflorin isn't talking about that country, and has spelled correctly.
posted by freebird at 9:31 AM on June 6, 2006

don't you mean 4 1000-storey buildings? i can picture that better.

I was thinking along the same lines. A single 4,000-storey building.

Beautiful video. Too bad the circumstances are so sad.
posted by brundlefly at 9:50 AM on June 6, 2006

nflorin got it wrong the first time and right the second time.
posted by Mitheral at 9:50 AM on June 6, 2006

I think the American settlers get the nod due to their early use of biological agents ( tuberculosis, smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, etc.)

Thorzdad: it was the British who deliberately traded smallpox blankets with Native Americans during the French and Indian War.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:02 AM on June 6, 2006

nflorin: that would be the various conflicts in Colombia...

No, I meant Columbia. You have no idea how nasty academics can be!

That spelling error is one of my pet peeves too and I am hanging my head in shame.
posted by nflorin at 10:11 AM on June 6, 2006

But how many Libraries of Congress could be demolished?
posted by ryanrs at 10:12 AM on June 6, 2006

I read somewhere that it is the second largest displacement of people in history. Second only to when early Americans displaced most of the indians to heaven.

Don't be silly. Indians don't go to heaven.
posted by rocket88 at 10:37 AM on June 6, 2006

Ah, I hadn't noticed the first "Columbia" and hang my head alongside nflorin. I was too intrigued by the term "Columbian Exchange" which I haven't seen a lot before. It seems like a really interesting balance between being a useful, accurate term and being a massive euphemism.
posted by freebird at 10:37 AM on June 6, 2006

How many VW Bugs of explosive is that?
posted by nathan_teske at 10:37 AM on June 6, 2006

Beautiful explosion. Absolutely gorges.
posted by redteam at 12:33 PM on June 6, 2006

Something tells me that a massive uncontrolled release of water down a river gorge is not really a good idea. In the video, they did not show the aftermath of that huge wall of water sloshing down the gorge.
posted by JJ86 at 1:10 PM on June 6, 2006

Wouldn't have to blow up a 4000 storey building — it'd just blow over!
posted by five fresh fish at 8:59 PM on June 6, 2006

True, but it'd be worth building one, just to see it topple!
posted by brundlefly at 12:39 AM on June 7, 2006

JJ86: the area behind the cofferdam had already been flooded. The water level wasn't really affected; the cofferdam basically collapsed beneath it.

Here's a diagram; they've just completed Stage 3. The lower cofferdam was demolished in March.

The rockfill cofferdams before and behind the main dam (Stage 2) were demolished in 2002. This is the completion of the removal of the bypass channel.
posted by dhartung at 1:55 AM on June 7, 2006

Haha... indeed, I was talking about the first Columbia... I was all ready to snark on the Columbian Exchange link too, until I actually clicked it and read what it was referring to :)
posted by antifuse at 6:37 AM on June 7, 2006