Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Unleashed: The History and Horror of Dam Failures

Unleashed: The History and Horror of Dam Failures

Koepsell, Kelly

Paperback

Series: In Your Face History

Environmental StudiesGeneral ScienceGeneral World History

ISBN13: 9798185056417
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 1 2026
Pages: 182
Weight: 0.55
Height: 0.39 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Every dam carries within it a profound contradiction. By holding back millions or even billions of gallons of water, we are not eliminating nature's power - we are concentrating it. We are storing gravitational potential energy on a massive scale. The higher the water rises behind the dam, the greater the force it exerts on the structure. That stored energy is what makes dams so valuable: it can be released gradually through turbines to produce electricity or through gates to manage downstream flows. But that same energy, if suddenly unleashed, becomes terrifying in its scale and speed.

A dam failure is not simply the breaking of concrete or earth. It is the violent return of stored potential energy to kinetic form - a wall of water, mud, and debris that can travel at astonishing speeds, sweeping away everything in its path. In a matter of minutes, years of careful engineering can be undone, and communities that trusted in the dam's stability can be devastated. The same structure that brings light, water, and security can, in an instant, become an instrument of destruction.

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