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21 July 2010
The Government has reportedly decided to use blasting to lower the lake at Attabad by 80 metres
The Associated Press Pakistan has a report of a somewhat important development in the Attabad landslide dam story this evening. The report is of a high level meeting, chaired by the President of Pakistan, which has decided to lower the level of the lake to 30 metres (it is currently 111 metres, implying a drop of about 80 metres from the current level. This will be achieved through controlled blasting. …
19 July 2010
Latest Attabad lake level information
I have now extracted the lake level data from the latest NDMA daily report. The latest graph on lake level above the spillway floor at the time of overtopping is as follows: I haven’t updated the long term lake level graph for a long time, so here it is: Finally, the flow through the spillway is also now increasing, even though the lake level is going up: This increased lake …
The Attabad lake is now at its highest level so far
Today’s NDMA report paints a surprising picture of the Attabad barrier lake. It reports that the water level has risen by 36 inches (91 cm) over the weekend, meaning that it is now at its highest ever level. I will try to post the graphs of lake level and discharge in the next three hours or so.
13 July 2010
Attabad – lake level is high but steady
The latest NDMA reports show that the lake level at Attabad is at its highest level to date, but is holding steady. As before, I have used the reports and the NDMA data to reconstruct the lake level data, to produce a graph that is consistent with NDMA for the last two weeks: Meanwhile, it appears that the discharge through the spillway has increased again, once more using the NDMA …
10 July 2010
Attabad – the lake level has apparently risen again
Interesting developments at Attabad, as various press reports suggest that the lake level increased substantially once again yesterday. The Pamir Times for example reports that the lake level went up by 11 inches (28 cm) yesterday; this magnitude of increase is reported elsewhere too. I have used the data and the graph in the NDMA daily reports to build a dataset of the lake level with time: If these reports …
9 July 2010
Increased landslide occurrence at Attabad
Various media reports suggest that the rate of landslide activity has dramatically increased today on the slopes above the Attabad lake. For example, SAMAA is reporting that “Series of landsliding still continues in intervals in Ataabad, Hunza, causing difficutlties for the boat service, SAMAA reported Friday. Process of landsliding has started in intervals since last night in Hunza, Ataabad. Boat service however being continuing.” A key concern remains the potential …
Attabad – what can NDMA do now?
The situation facing NDMA at Attabad remains very challenging. They continue to need to manage both an understandably restive displaced population and a dam that has reached some kind of dynamic equilibrium, with no major changes appearing to be occurring. In addition, the optimum solution for the upstream population (draining of the lake) is at odds with the probable wishes of the downstream population (stabilise the lake in place such …
8 July 2010
Can Attabad fail?
A number of commenters here have suggested that the structure of the dam is such that it cannot now fail due to the presence of the large boulders. So I thought I’d write a short post exploring whether this is actually the case. I believe that it can still fail, and indeed that eventually it probably will, but I have no idea as to the likely time-frame. The reasons that …
7 July 2010
New EO-1 ALI satellite image of Attabad
NASA have released a new satellite image of the Attabad landslide and lake, collected by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument on the EO-1 satellite on Saturday 2nd July. The images are excellent, showing both the lake and the dam and spillway with only limited cloud cover (note that north is to the right on these images): The box indicates the following close-up image: They also link to this site, …
6 July 2010
Attabad – no substantial changes in the lake level reported by NDMA
Thanks to various commenters on the Attabad threads for their incredibly helpful and interesting contributions – this is something that I really value – and also for seeking out the latest information on the situation now that my usual feed has dried up. NDMA posted a report dated 5th July (but helpfully they got the file name wrong – thanks to Divalent for tracking down the right one here) that …
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
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