The culprit who makes the highest dam in America is about to break, threatening 100,000 people

The phenomenon of soil erosion in the spillway of a reservoir can cause a nearly 10-meter-high concrete wall to collapse, threatening the lives of more than 100,000 people.

Breaking the dam is a tragedy that makes every engineer engineer terrified. This is also a nightmare that US authorities are facing when ordered to evacuate more than 100,000 people downstream of the country's highest dam on February 12 by a wall in the second largest reservoir near Oroville, California is at risk of collapse, according to the Los Angeles Times.

This concrete wall allowed the water to flow through, reducing the enormous pressure on the nearby Oroville dam.

A large hole caused by erosion is spreading to a low concrete wall that is considered the last line of defense before the disaster. The project named after the spillway is designed as an emergency escape for fast rising water on Lake Oroville . This concrete wall allowed the water to flow through, reducing the enormous pressure on the nearby Oroville dam.

The concrete wall was a key part of the emergency water discharge system at Lake Oroville and had never been used since the dam was inaugurated in 1968. Activity last week was the first test run of the dam. wall after erosion causes major damage to the main spillway.

However, shortly after the water began to flow through the spillway, a weak spot was discovered in the emergency water discharge system. The ground under the spill begins to erode, creating a large hole about the size of a football field, increasingly ingrained in the foundation of the concrete wall. If the soil continues to be washed away, the hole will weaken and crack the wall, causing the wall of water nearly 10 meters high to collapse into the valley below. Millions of liters of water will rush into the Feather River, the main tributary of the largest river in California, Sacramento, flooding towns along the river.

Pits of erosion can cause a collapse of a concrete wall to block a dam, causing a disaster.(Graphics: LATimes).

"Once the erosion affects the water flow, it will fall into a state of uncontrollability. And as soon as the water starts to overflow, you will have no way to stop it," said Chris Orrock, spokesman for the Agency California, said.

Fortunately, within 90 minutes after the authorities decided to hasten water discharge through Lake Oroville's main spillway, the erosion rate on the emergency spillway began to slow down. On the evening of February 12, the water level in the lake fell to a lower level than the spillway and no longer flows through the concrete wall. Soil erosion is prevented in time.

However, this area is preparing to receive a heavy rain in the coming days, making the situation forecast to be extremely serious. Oroville Dam is still a bomb that is horribly slow, expressing the superior strength of nature before people.