#Man-made Disasters

[frc-ambaradan]

9th October 1963 - The Vajont Dam disaster

The dam of the Vajont river, straddling over the italian regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto, is one of the tallest dams in the world standing at 262m of height. It was initially conceived in the '20s but eventually built only much later from 1957 to 1960 against the will of the communities below and the opinions of many geologists.

The Vajont Dam in 1960.

The deep gorge of the Vajont river is in fact a known geologically unstable area with a long history of landslides and sorrounded by mountains with poor structural integrity. Despite all the warnings and repeated signs of instability and after many unfavorable forecasts based on simulations, the dam's basin was filled beyond security level.

In the night of 9th October 1963 a ginormous landslide 2km wide made of 260 millions m3 of rocks and dirt fell from Mount Toc speeding down at over 100km/h.

Almost the entire side of the mountain came down to completely fill the basin, generating a seismic shock and a megatsunami. A wave 250m tall leapt over the dam and 50 millions m3 of water rushed into the valley below devasting everything in its path with a display of energy equatable to twice the nuclear blast of Hiroshima and originating an impact crater 60m deep and 80m wide.

The dam and its basin after the landslide.

The towns of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè, in the Piave Valley below, were totally obliterated.

Almost 2000 people were killed, many of them have never been identified. And 1300 more have never been found.

The towns of Pirago and Longarone after the disaster.

The dam's site manager, engineer Mario Pancini, overcome by guilt took his own life two months later. After much debate over the predictability of the tragedy only two people, project engineer Alberico Biadene and Francesco Sensidoni of the Department of Public Works, were found guilty and sentenced, respectively, to 5 years and 3 years and 8 months in prison.

In 2000 Montedison (who in the meantime had acquired electric society SADE, owner of the dam), ENEL (italian multinational and public manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas), and the Italian State were ordered to jointly compensate the town of Longarone for 55.645.758.500 lire (about 28 millions euros).

The Vajont Dam today

The Vajont Dam disaster was declared by the UN one of the worst man-made disasters in history.

What's really flabbergasting is that the dam survived the catastrophe almost completely unscated and it's still considered today a masterpiece of engineering.

A masterpiece built in the wrong place and a perennial warning against human kind's greed and delusion of omnipotence.

President Mattarella on the dam's walkway in occasion of the tragedy's 60th anniversary (9th October 2023).

[wolfspaw]

[koolaidashley]

Fade to black 😢

Part 3 | Final part (coming soonish)

[isan0rt]

I'm doing my first reread of the back half of Dunmeshi, having forgotten a lot of the details of what happened because I read it all so fast (three days for the whole manga from start to finish) and damn. This panel from chapter 54. This fucking panel.

I'm sure I'm late to the party here and someone else has already talked about this but this panel is just. This whole sequence is just such a stark illustration of who Kabru is when the chips are down. He's out of his element. His plan to get the people out of the dungeon safely failed catastrophically in a way he (naively) didn't predict, but the Canaries did, and planned ahead for in exactly the way that is the most upsetting to Kabru personally. He's being actively retraumatized at this very moment by the panic as people flee, as people get poisoned outside Pattadol's barrier.

And he still saves this man.

He doesn't know this guy! He had never seen him before in his life. Everyone else in that crowd was already too late to save. But this guy wasn't! This guy wasn't, and Kabru put his neck on the line to rescue him without hesitation. His first thought was for identifying the person still trapped so he could be rescued. He didn't think for an instant about his own safety. The instant concern is not an act! Look at his face!

He didn't have to save this man... Except that he did, because of who he is as a person. There is no innocent human life that is disposable to Kabru, despite what the red herring of his reaction to the thieves at the beginning was. This is who Kabru is.

[downbaddetective]

i would love to see the cat king tangled in christmas lights. i think it would be funny.

(is edwin trying to help him out? is charles laughing at him? is he tangled all alone? you decide!)

Thank you for the request (and the laugh)! 🤣

(Requests are open until December 15th)

[v88sy]

"As much as everyone wants me to be hopelessly pining for my straight best friend it's not like that"

Yeah, he wasn't just talking to Maddie there.

[lesbiancosmicowl]

We're both on a journey here, it just turns out you're a little bit farther along than I am. ↳ Carla Connor & Lisa Swain + Carla's love confession

[thekitsandthekats]

unfortunately for everyone, i went to bed last night completely normal, and woke up this morning plagued with thoughts of thanos x namgyu. like i get that inho and gihun are the toxic old man yaoi of the show but thanos x namgyu are the young and reckless gays living for the rush of life (through the power combo of drugs and death games) and now they're everything to me.

[margindoodles2407]

i love anakin and i love padme and because of that i refuse to let people get away with either demonizing them OR sanitizing their characters. both apply to both equally

[kimaisalloren]

Redraw of my favorite chapter art. Except I wanted a creepy vibe and to make it look like inkwash. Original here owo: 👇

[wolfspaw]

[robo-dino-puppies]

dragon age 2 | anders

[urghblergh]

I recently started watching DS9 and to no one's surprise became obsessed with these two idiots. 🫠

[wormdevourer]

idk why I made this

[purple-ant]

mines monday: 100 words

Dooku's attention slips. The mistake is unworthy of a Jedi, he knows, but it takes him a moment to stop his gaze from flickering to his friend.

He finds himself returning, over and over, to a certain part of Sifo-Dyas. His lips.

They’re shaped differently from Dooku's own or Jocasta's. Not surprising, given the diversity of the Order's species, but... they look soft. They are full where Jocasta's are thin. And Dooku has kissed Jocasta a couple of times, it was... interesting. Fun, even.

He wonders if Sifo-Dyas's lips feel as soft as they look. He’d like to find out.