Pacoima Dam

Pacoima Dam is a concrete arch dam on Pacoima Creek in the San Gabriel Mountains, in Los Angeles County, California. The reservoir which it creates, Pacoima Reservoir, has a capacity of 3,777 acre⋅ft (4,659,000 m3)[1]

Pacoima Dam
The Pacoima Dam, viewed from Contract Point.
CountryUnited States
LocationLos Angeles County, California
Coordinates34°20′05″N 118°23′47″W
StatusIn use
Construction began1925
Opening date1928
Owner(s)Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
Dam and spillways
Type of damarch
ImpoundsPacoima Creek
Height371 feet (113 m)
Length640 feet (200 m)
Spillways1
Spillway typeService, concrete tunnel
Spillway capacity24,700 cubic feet per second (700 m3/s)
Reservoir
CreatesPacoima Reservoir
Total capacity3,777 acre⋅ft (4,659,000 m3)
Catchment area27.8 square miles (72 km2)
Surface area68 acres (28 ha)

Built by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, which became part of the Department of Public Works, it was completed in 1928. At the time, the 371 foot (113m) high dam was the tallest arch dam in the U.S.[1]

The dam is situated approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Sylmar, above the San Fernando Valley.[1]

Instrumentation

As construction of Pacoima Dam began, the County of Los Angeles hired Roy W. Carlson[2] as their concrete and soil testing engineer. He developed the world's first strain meter which could be embedded in concrete. He also developed an adiabatic calorimeter and electrical-resistance thermometers to determine why the temperature of concrete increased during curing and how best to avoid cracking caused by these stresses.[3]

Earthquake monitoring

The Pacoima Dam withstood, but was damaged by, the very strong (>1 g) ground movement which occurred during both the 1971 San Fernando and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. Because of concerns about the stability of the dam and especially its response to potential future earthquakes, the County of Los Angeles, with the technical support of the USGS, began monitoring the dam using continuous GPS.[1]

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gollark: Mrmola's goals are beyond the understanding of us mortal beings/
gollark: What does mola have that data for?
gollark: OH NO IT STARTED AGAIN ÅAAAAA
gollark: > Someone in charge of the Discord bots here should write or extend a bot to replace a regex match to replace 0/0 or x/0 by UNDEFINED automatically. Something like re.replace([0-9]*/ 0, UNDEFINED , string) (simplified because I am lazy) , so MrMola can no longer type 0 / 0 and it's automatically shown as UNDEFINED :- )<@520480232738652161> Bots and moderators cannot, for extremely obvious reasons, edit other people's messages.

See also

References
  1. Hudnut, Kenneth W. & Behr, Jeffrey A. (1998). "Continuous GPS monitoring of Structural Deformation at Pacoima Dam, California". Seismological Society of America. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  2. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley "Dr. Roy W. Carlson"
  3. Rogers, J. David (2012). "DAMS AND DISASTERS: a brief overview of dam building triumphs and tragedies in California's past" (PDF). University of California Davis. Retrieved 2014-01-23.


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