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The Stava tailings dam failure (Trento, Italy)

(last updated 13 May 2009)

The dam failure and its impacts

On July 19, 1985, a fluorite tailings dam of Prealpi Mineraia failed at Stava, Trento, Italy. 200,000 m3 of tailings flowed 4.2 km downstream at a speed of up to 90 km/h, killing 268 people and destroying 62 buildings. The total surface area affected was 43.5 hectares.

The tailings dam consisted of two basins built on a slope. The failure started at 12.22:55 h with a collapse of the up-slope basin. The inflow of the released material caused the overtopping and subsequent collapse of the lower basin. The resulting slurry wave travelled to Stava at a speed of 30 km/h; later it reached 90 km/h.

Before the dam failure:
Stava aerial view before dam failure - Scroll down! After the dam failure:
Stava aerial view after dam failure - Scroll down!

Aerial photos: Permit of the general staff of the Italian Air Force No. 01-120 and No. 01-121 of March 22, 1995

> Aerial view animation of Stava slurry wave:

GIF animation 400x1600 (384k)
(scroll down with progression of slurry wave!)

AVI video 240x180 (250k)

> for details, see: Foundation Stava 1985

Maps:

Views:

Foundation Stava 1985
Views from helicopter flight over the flow slide (MPEG video 4.6MB)

News + Infos:

Company

Government

Academic

Environmental NGOs

Foundation Stava 1985

Press

Alto Adige

Literature

Sgorigrad - Stava, Identical disasters, Fondazione Stava 1985, 62 p., ISBN 978-88-88203-52-2, Lavis (TN-Italy), April 2009 [in English/Italian/Bulgarian]
STAVA 1985 - una documentazione , Fondazione Stava 1985, 96 p., ISBN 88-87534-59-4, Trento (Italy), luglio 2003 [in Italian]
Stava perché , La genesi, le cause, le responsibiltà della catastrofe di Stava negli atti dell'inchiesta ministeriale e nelle sentenze del procedimento penale, a cura di Graziano Lucchi, 254 p., ISBN 88-87534-37-3, Seconda edizione, Trento (Italy), gennaio 2002 [in Italian]
Rassegna dei contributi scientifici sul disastro della Val di Stava (Provincia di Trento), 19 luglio 1985 / A review of scientific contributions on the Stava Valley disaster (Eastern Italian Alps), 19th July 1985. a cura di/edited by Giovanni Tosatti, Volume speciale del GNDCI-CNR, pp. 480, Pitagora Editrice , Bologna, 2003, ISBN 88-371-01405-2 [comprehensive compilation of 24 papers on the causes of the Stava tailings dam failure, most of which first appeared in various scientific journals; all papers are in original language (Italian, English, Japanese, German)]
The Stava tailings dams failure, Italy, July 1985, by R.J. Chandler and G. Tosatti. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Geotechnical Engineering, Vol.113, No.2, April 1995, p.67-79

> For Italian-English translations, check Babelfish

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