27 February 2012

Updated (twice) with videos: Breaking news – the Attabad landslide spillway has been reopened

Posted by Dave Petley

http://pamirtimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Attabad-Spillway-Hunza-1.jpg

http://pamirtimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Attabad-Spillway-Hunza-1.jpg

The Pamir Times is reporting that the coffer dam at the Attabad spillway, shown in the above image from the Pamir Times, has been blasted today, allowing water to flow through the newly reopened spillway.  At the time of writing that are reporting that the discharge is about 50,000 cubic feet per second (1415 cubic metres per second), which is amongst the highest flow rates recorded through the spillway to date.  The lake level is reported to have dropped by about 45 cm so far.

Update 1: The following video has now been posted on Youtube.  The flow looks to be impressive:

Update 2: A video of the blast is now available too: