COGGE Webinar - 12/2/2021: The 2020 Edenville Dam Failure: Evidence for Static Liquefaction
Channel: National Academies - Earth and Life Studies
Date: 2021-12-14

An independent forensic team (IFT) commissioned by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission explored the physical causes of the catastrophic May 19, 2020 breaches of the Edenville and Sanford Dams in central Michigan. The team concluded that static liquefaction was the most likely mechanism of failure for the Edenville Dam. There are few documented cases of dam failures associated with static liquefaction, and static liquefaction has received little attention for water storage embankment dams. The failure of Edenville Dam suggests that static liquefaction is a viable failure mechanism that should be considered, and also raises the question of whether past failures of some embankment dams may have been erroneously attributed to other causes such as overtopping or internal erosion. In this webinar hosted by the Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering, John France, leader of the IFT, will summarize the sequence of events leading to the dam failures and the resulting significant property damage and evacuation of thousands of residents, and will describe the evidence pointing to static liquefaction as a causal mechanism. The virtual audience will have opportunity to ask Mr. France questions about the findings.