With all the rain Iowa has gotten in the past couple days I would not be surprised to see more dams fail. I was surprised to hear about this darn as it was pretty well made. They say that water has force and with the extra water in the lake basin I guess the darn just could not hold any more. We will have to wait until the water is down enough to learn why this darn failed.
Is there a particular reason why you keep calling it a "darn"? This inevitably is the big risk you take when you live near any dam because regardless of structural failures there are also earthquakes and other natural disasters that trigger problems.
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Well a "dam" is a erected structure that is used to hold back water. Here in Iowa we do not worry about earthquakes as they happen very rarely. Across the state we have many man made lakes that usually use just a earth dam to hold back water to make a small lake or a pond. Most of these are shallow ranging from 4-20 feet in depth. The larger dams are usually a mix of earth and concrete usually build by the state or the army Corps of engineers to control flooding on many of the larger rivers. Many of these lakes are then used for recreational purposes. This darn was one that was made for recreation I believe.
This is how MSNBC is reporting it:
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