International Railroad Discussion > The impressive collapse of Vale mining mud dam (Brazil)

Hi, a video from one of the cameras of Vale mining machines shows the impressive avalanche of mud that killed more that 350 people at Vale mining in Brumadinho, MG Brazil last Friday 25. Note the MRS railroad train accelerating to try to scape. The crew died.  The leading locomotive and  one MRS employee were not found until this moment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xf5dIXCKBY

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,




Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/19 11:50 by pedrop.

Wow.

The dam collapse


https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-gerais/noticia/2019/02/01/video-mostra-o-momento-exato-em-que-barragem-da-vale-rompe-em-brumadinho.ghtml

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Another video show us the moment when the dam collapses



https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-gerais/noticia/2019/02/01/video-mostra-o-momento-exato-em-que-barragem-da-vale-rompe-em-brumadinho.ghtml

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/19 11:48 by pedrop.

From the news here:

"The images that have just been shown by Rede Globo make it very clear that it was a process of infiltration of liquid - water or dense mud - which overturned Vale 's tailings dam at Brumadinho.
Not an overflow, not a crack in the embankment, but an immense stain of moisture that, for a few seconds, appears right at the base of the dam, which is 40 years from the beginning of its construction. Then its edges saw a splash of mud, fed by the "descent" of the copro dam, similar to one of the "implosions" of buildings we have seen so many times.
Almost at the center of the building, the impression is that a sheet of water or very dense tailings, underground (the dam was dry on top, with vegetation, including small trees) liquefied the earth's reservoir.
The phenomenon seems to be the same in another point, to the right of the one who looks at it, approximately on the same level as the first, although both are practically simultaneous, because everything is very fast.
It was not, therefore, a rapid accumulation of water, but a process of slow and progressive accumulation.
How such an unstable and potentially disastrous layer has formed without the detection instruments not being signaled seems to be the "mystery".
The so-called piezometers, devices used to monitor dams, measure the levels of water accumulation in deep sections of the dam and did not detect them. Were they at this depth corresponding to ancient periods? Or were they neglected because the dam had been abandoned for some time?
The video that records the fall of the dam has the equivalent importance to the "black box" of crashed airplanes.
We know what happened, we do not know why it happened and because of who happened.
And if they want to hold anyone accountable. "

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/19 11:58 by pedrop.

Thankyou Pedro.That is very confronting to watch.RIP
Regards,DK

Very sad to see this, that is horrific.

The truck and front loader drivers we see in the video escaped from the mud. They were interviewed by the local tv yesterday.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/19 04:53 by pedrop.

I believe this is partly why dam specifications went from a 2-1 to a 3-1 slope in the US. Thicker dam so water has to work deeper to cause a failure.

Posted from Android

was it lined?

This could have been the same scene here in So Cal when the Saint Francis dam collapsed at midnight in 1928.If you look at the Castaic Junction pics from 1928 the scene is very similar. 
https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-stfrancis-dam-retrospective-20160319-story.html

Very interesting.  Thanks.

What do you mean?

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> was it lined?

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Some dams and lakes are lined with clay , concrete or plastic to keep water in.

Posted from Android

That was a 40 years old dam and I am not sure if it lined. It had some drains to allow the water scape from the mud.

NSDTK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some dams and lakes are lined with clay , concrete
> or plastic to keep water in.
>
> Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

A new video made by drone just after the avalanche of mud.

https://youtu.be/eGaQ0vjHZE0

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Terrifying.  In the United States we had dam failures of that magnitude but more than a century ago - the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania comes to mind.  

It is chilling to see this in real time.

~RGDave

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very sad to see this, that is horrific.

It reminds me of the Tsunami videos from Japan after the big earthquake in 2011.

I was at Disney world last week with my extended family and was in line with a family from southern Brazil who spoke of this disaster.  His feeling was that "this was more of the same from this firm". They had been involved with a very similar dam failure a few years previous and had sworn corrections had been taken so that 'it could never happen again'. It was his feeling that there was just too much money and corruption involved and that the lives of a few hundred peasants didn't matter.  This would pass and things would go on as before.  Sad, but I think he is probably right given the current political and business atmosphere.....