Lago di Pontesei

Lago di Pontesei is a lake in the Province of Belluno, Veneto, Italy.

Lago di Pontesei
LocationProvince of Belluno, Veneto
Coordinates46°20′13″N 12°13′34″E
Primary inflowsMaè
Primary outflowsMaè
Basin countriesItaly
Water volume62,750 m3 (2,216,000 cu ft)
Surface elevation93 m (305 ft)

The dam originally formed a much larger area, which reached the confluence with the Maresón torrent in the Pónt of Péez.

Preceded by numerous warning signs, including the formation of cracks along the roadway bordering the reservoir, on the morning of March 22, 1959 a landslide, with an estimated volume of about 3 million cubic meters, it broke away from the slopes of Mount Castellin and Spiz, on the left bank of the lake, on a front of 500 meters and fell in 2–3 minutes, partially filling the lake. Although the basin was 13 meters below the full load level the landslide caused a wave that overcame the dam and overwhelmed Arcangelo Tiziani,[1] a worker of a construction company, who was carrying out the construction of the power plant downstream of the dam, whose body was never found.[2] The accident is considered an anticipation of the Vajont dam disaster due to the analogy of its unfolding, and, while the Vajont Dam was built in the neighbor Longarone, it was seen with great concern.

The analyzes of the experts indicated that the collapsed material originally constituted a debris blanket, in some places even 20 meters thick [3]

Condition of the basin after the landslide

The rock collapsed, still clearly visible from the road, partially filled the basin (which until 1966 continued to be filled up to its maximum depth), forming a sort of promontory within the lake. ENEL significantly reduced its average load level for security reasons, on the order of civil engineering after the 1966 flood.[4][5]

References
  1. Edoardo Semenza (2002). "4.". La storia del Vaiont raccontata dal geologo che ha scoperto la frana [The history of the Vaiont told by the geologist who discovered the landslide]. Tecomproject. p. 36.
  2. Stone dedicated to Arcangelo Tiziani
  3. "The Pontesei landslide".
  4. Bonetti, Paolo; Paolo Lazzarin (1997). La val di Zoldo. Itinerari escursionistici [The val di Zoldo. Hiking routes.] (in Italian). Verona: Cierre Edizioni. p. 129.
  5. Sulla pelle viva. Come si costruisce una catastrofe: il caso del Vajont by Tina Merlin, Cierre Editions (2001), pp. 67-68, ISBN 88-8314-121-0


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