Published 25 August 2011
Tuesday's Virginia earthquake raised fears that a Fukushima scenario would unfold somewhere on the East Coast, but experts say that earthquake pose a much greater threat: breaching decrepit dams; of the 85,000 dams in the United States, 4,000 are seriously unsafe or deficient -- and of those, 1,800 are located in areas where a breach would cause grave damage to life and property
Concerns about dam failures come to the fore // Source: qwiki.com
Tuesday’s Virginia-centered earthquake, which shook the East Coast of the United States, caused a nuclear power plant in Virginia to be immediately taken off line, and for its cooling system to be powered by back-up generators.
Many may have feared the tremor may bring about a Fukushima-like disaster, but Scientific Americannotes that Americans should be more worried about a quieter danger: tens of thousands of dams, many built before seismic engineering came of age, have the potential to release tsunami-like flash floods in the event of a seismic breach. Read more
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