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| Titel |
The 27 May 1937 catastrophic flow failure of gold tailings at Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, Mexico |
| VerfasserIn |
J. L. Macias, P. Corona-Chávez, J. M. Sanchéz-Núñez, M. Martínez-Medina, V. H. Garduño-Monroy, L. Capra, F. García-Tenorio, G. Cisneros-Máximo |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1561-8633
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences ; 15, no. 5 ; Nr. 15, no. 5 (2015-05-27), S.1069-1085 |
| Datensatznummer |
250119480
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/nhess-15-1069-2015.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
On 27 May 1937, after one week of sustained heavy rainfall, a voluminous
flood caused the death of at least 300 people and the destruction of the
historic El Carmen church and several neighborhoods in the mining region of
Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, central Mexico. This destructive flood was
triggered by the breaching of the impoundment of the Los Cedros tailings and
the sudden release of circa 16 Mt of water-saturated waste materials. The
muddy silty flood, moving at estimated speeds of 20–25 m s−1, was channelized
along the Dos Estrellas and Tlalpujahua drainages and devastated everything
along its flow path. After advancing 2.5 km downstream, the flood slammed
into El Carmen church and surrounding houses at estimated speeds of
~ 7 m s−1, destroying many construction walls and covering
the church floor with ~ 2 m of mud and debris. Revision of
eyewitness accounts and newspaper articles, together with analysis of
archived photographic materials, indicated that the flood consisted of three
muddy pulses. Stratigraphic relations and granulometric data for selected
proximal and distal samples show that the flood behaved as a
hyperconcentrated flow along most of its trajectory. A total volume of the
Lamas flood deposit was estimated as 1.5 × 106 m3. The physically
based bidimensional (2-D) hydraulic model FLO-2D was implemented to reproduce
the breached flow (0.5 sediment concentration) with a maximum flow discharge
of 8000 m3 s−1 for a total outflow volume (sediment + water) of
2.5 × 106 m3, similar to the calculations obtained using field measurements.
Even though premonitory signs of possible impoundment failure were reported
days before the flood, and people living downstream were alerted,
authorities ordered no evacuations or other mitigative actions. The
catastrophic flood at Tlalpujahua provides a well-documented, though tragic,
example of impoundment breaching of a tailings dam caused by the combined
effects of intense rainfall, dam weakness, and inadequate
emergency-management protocols – unfortunately an all-too-common
case scenario for most of the world's mining regions. |
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