Dams can induce seismic activity when the water pressure builds near tectonic faults. About 140 quakes seem to have been caused in this way globally since the 1960s
officials say that, since the earthquakes, fractures have appeared in eight dams in the region including three in Syria. The Taloul dam in the Syrian province of Idlib, already devastated, was struck by an aftershock and burst on February 8th. The flood washed away this year’s harvest and filled the streets with debris. Thousands fled.
Others are less confident. Many dams in the region are made at least partly of earth. In such barriers even small leaks can lead to a build-up of pressure that can wash them away, says Ceyhun Ozcelik, a professor of engineering from Gaziantep, a city near the recent earthquakes’ epicentre. Two decades ago, the Zeyzoun dam in northern Syria crumbled in hours, inundating nearby villages. The region’s high dams are hundreds of times larger.
The dams themselves can induce seismic activity when the water pressure builds near tectonic faults. About 140 quakes seem to have been caused in this way globally since the 1960s, in at least one case killing thousands. After February’s earthquakes and then heavy rains, Turkish officials eased the pressure on dams by lowering water tables. Rivers that had dried up because of the dams turned to torrents. In the city of Hasake in north-eastern Syria the Khabur river ran through parched farmlands for the first time in years. Islands that had surfaced in the Tigris in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, briefly sank again.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline"Dam-nation"
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