Abstract
The increasing demand for minerals and their subsequent mining causes tailings to be produced in large amounts. Hence, tailings dams have increased in number as well as height to accommodate more storage capacity. Failure of these structures is dangerous with respect to toxic exposure, landslides, liquefaction, etc. In this study, the possible failure mechanisms of the Las Palmas tailings dam, which failed following the 2010 Maule, Chile earthquake, have been examined. Numerical simulation of the dam is carried out using the GeoStudio package to assess the condition of the dam during this seismic event and a pseudo-static analysis is carried out. The strong ground motion of the 2010 Maule, Chile earthquake recorded at three of the stations near the dam site was used as input since there is no record available at the tailings dam site. Slope stability analysis is performed to understand the possible failure mechanism. The Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion is used to define the material properties. Furthermore, the simulation results are compared with the final dam failure scenario.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Vick SG (1983) Planning, design, and analysis of tailings dams. Wiley, New York
Jakka RS, Ramana GV, Datta M (2011) Seismic slope stability of embankments constructed with pond ash. Geotech Geol Eng 29(5):821–835
Psarropoulos PN, Tsompanakis Y (2008) Stability of tailings dams under static and seismic loading. Can Geotech J 45(5):663–675
Azam S, Li QR (2010) Tailings dam failures: a review of the last one hundred years. Geotech News 28(4):50–53
Davis MP (2002) Tailings impoundment failures: are geotechnical engineers listening? Geotechnical News, BiTech Publishers, Richmond, BC, Canada, pp 31–36
Ferdosi B, James M, Aubertin M (2015) Investigation of the effect of waste rock inclusions configuration on the seismic performance of a tailings impoundment. Geotech Geol Eng 33(6):1519–1537
Ferdosi B, James M, Aubertin M (2015) Numerical simulations of seismic and post-seismic behavior of tailings. Can Geotech J 53(1):85–92
Klohn EJ (1997) Tailings dams in Canada. Geotechnical news. BiTech Publishers, Richmond, BC, Canada, pp 117–123
Rico M, Benito G, Salgueiro AR, DÃez-Herrero A, Pereira HG (2008) Reported tailings dam failures: a review of the European incidents in the worldwide context. J Hazard Mater 152(2):846–852
WISE (World Information Service on Energy) (2015) Chronology of major tailings dam failures. www.wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html
ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) (2001) Tailings dams—risk of dangerous occurrences—lessons learnt from past experiences. Commission Internationale des Grands Barrages, Paris
Moss RES, Gebhart TR, Frost DJ, Ledezma C (2019) Flow-failure case history of the Las Palmas, Chile, Tailings Dam. PEER Report No. 2019/01
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Aswathi, T.S., Jakka, R.S., Frost, D. (2022). A Case Study of Las Palmas Tailings Dam Failure. In: Sitharam, T.G., Kolathayar, S., Jakka, R. (eds) Earthquakes and Structures. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 188. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5673-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5673-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-5672-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-5673-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)