Jemez Canyon Dam (National ID # NM00003) is a dam in Sandoval County , New Mexico , in the United States , a few miles north of Albuquerque .
31-699: The earthen dam was constructed in 1953 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers , with a height of 150 feet and a length at its crest of 870 feet. It impounds the Jemez River creating Jemez Canyon Reservoir for flood control and storm water management in the spring and early summer seasons. The dam is owned by the Corps of Engineers, and operated by the Corps and the Cochiti Lake Project Office. Jemez Canyon Dam
62-418: A dam and the filling of the reservoir behind it places a new weight on the floor and sides of a valley. The stress of the water increases linearly with its depth. Water also pushes against the upstream face of the dam, a nonrigid structure that under stress behaves semiplastically, and causes greater need for adjustment (flexibility) near the base of the dam than at shallower water levels. Thus the stress level of
93-438: A dense, impervious core. This makes the dam impervious to surface or seepage erosion . Such a dam is composed of fragmented independent material particles. The friction and interaction of particles binds the particles together into a stable mass rather than by the use of a cementing substance. Embankment dams come in two types: the earth-filled dam (also called an earthen dam or terrain dam ) made of compacted earth, and
124-422: A drain layer to collect seep water. A zoned-earth dam has distinct parts or zones of dissimilar material, typically a shell of locally plentiful material with a watertight clay core. Modern zoned-earth embankments employ filter and drain zones to collect and remove seep water and preserve the integrity of the downstream shell zone. An outdated method of zoned earth dam construction used a hydraulic fill to produce
155-401: A normal water surface of 2.2 square miles and a maximum capacity of 264,700 acre-feet . Recreation was historically high when there was a permanent pool of 2,000-3,000 acre feet due to its proximity to the growing Albuquerque metropolitan area . Today, the reservoir is left dry, and recreation is limited. There is no access to the dam or lakebed. All land surrounding the reservoir, including
186-432: A small day-use area with picnic facilities and a scenic overlook, is the property of Santa Ana Pueblo . Access is restricted to the day-use area only. Embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam . It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi- plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and
217-404: A small sustained overtopping flow can remove thousands of tons of overburden soil from the mass of the dam within hours. The removal of this mass unbalances the forces that stabilize the dam against its reservoir as the mass of water still impounded behind the dam presses against the lightened mass of the embankment, made lighter by surface erosion. As the mass of the dam erodes, the force exerted by
248-686: A thick suspension of earth, rocks and water. Therefore, safety requirements for the spillway are high, and require it to be capable of containing a maximum flood stage. It is common for its specifications to be written such that it can contain at least a one-hundred-year flood. A number of embankment dam overtopping protection systems were developed in the early 21st century. These techniques include concrete overtopping protection systems, timber cribs , sheet-piles , riprap and gabions , Reinforced Earth , minimum energy loss weirs , embankment overflow stepped spillways , and precast concrete block protection systems. All dams are prone to seepage underneath
279-590: A watertight core. Rolled-earth dams may also employ a watertight facing or core in the manner of a rock-fill dam. The frozen-core dam is a temporary earth dam occasionally used in high latitudes by circulating a coolant through pipes inside the dam to maintain a watertight region of permafrost within it. Tarbela Dam is a large dam on the Indus River in Pakistan , about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Islamabad . Its height of 485 ft (148 m) above
310-421: Is blasted using explosives to break the rock. Additionally, the rock pieces may need to be crushed into smaller grades to get the right range of size for use in an embankment dam. Earth-fill dams, also called earthen dams, rolled-earth dams or earth dams, are constructed as a simple embankment of well-compacted earth. A homogeneous rolled-earth dam is entirely constructed of one type of material but may contain
341-417: The rock-filled dam . A cross-section of an embankment dam shows a shape like a bank, or hill. Most have a central section or core composed of an impermeable material to stop water from seeping through the dam. The core can be of clay, concrete, or asphalt concrete . This type of dam is a good choice for sites with wide valleys. They can be built on hard rock or softer soils. For a rock-fill dam, rock-fill
SECTION 10
#1732779658284372-412: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Hydraulic fill Hydraulic fill is a means of selectively emplacing soil or other materials using a stream of water. It is also a term used to describe the materials thus emplaced. Gravity , coupled with velocity control, is used to effect the selected deposition of the material. Borrow pits containing suitable material are accessible at an elevation such that
403-637: The asphalt make such dams especially suited to earthquake regions. For the Moglicë Hydro Power Plant in Albania the Norwegian power company Statkraft built an asphalt-core rock-fill dam. Upon completion in 2018 the 320 m long, 150 m high and 460 m wide dam is anticipated to be the world's highest of its kind. A concrete-face rock-fill dam (CFRD) is a rock-fill dam with concrete slabs on its upstream face. This design provides
434-549: The concrete slab as an impervious wall to prevent leakage and also a structure without concern for uplift pressure. In addition, the CFRD design is flexible for topography, faster to construct and less costly than earth-fill dams. The CFRD concept originated during the California Gold Rush in the 1860s when miners constructed rock-fill timber-face dams for sluice operations . The timber was later replaced by concrete as
465-406: The core is separated using a filter. Filters are specifically graded soil designed to prevent the migration of fine grain soil particles. When suitable building material is at hand, transport is minimized, leading to cost savings during construction. Rock-fill dams are resistant to damage from earthquakes . However, inadequate quality control during construction can lead to poor compaction and sand in
496-406: The dam must be calculated in advance of building to ensure that its break level threshold is not exceeded. Overtopping or overflow of an embankment dam beyond its spillway capacity will cause its eventual failure . The erosion of the dam's material by overtopping runoff will remove masses of material whose weight holds the dam in place and against the hydraulic forces acting to move the dam. Even
527-490: The dam, but embankment dams are prone to seepage through the dam as well; for example, the Usoi landslide dam leaks 35-80 cubic meters per second. Sufficiently fast seepage can dislodge a dam's component particles, which results in faster seepage, which turns into a runaway feedback loop that can destroy the dam in a piping-type failure. Seepage monitoring is therefore an essential safety consideration. gn and Construction in
558-456: The design was applied to irrigation and power schemes. As CFRD designs grew in height during the 1960s, the fill was compacted and the slab's horizontal and vertical joints were replaced with improved vertical joints. In the last few decades, design has become popular. The tallest CFRD in the world is the 233 m-tall (764 ft) Shuibuya Dam in China , completed in 2008. The building of
589-420: The earth can be sluiced to the fill after being washed from the bank by high-pressure nozzles. Hydraulic fill is likely to be the most economic method of construction. Even when the source material lacks sufficient elevation, it can be elevated to the sluice by a dredge pump. In the construction of a hydraulic fill dam , the edges of the dam are defined by low embankments or dykes which are built upward as
620-578: The embankment which can lead to liquefaction of the rock-fill during an earthquake. Liquefaction potential can be reduced by keeping susceptible material from being saturated, and by providing adequate compaction during construction. An example of a rock-fill dam is New Melones Dam in California or the Fierza Dam in Albania . A core that is growing in popularity is asphalt concrete . The majority of such dams are built with rock and/or gravel as
651-476: The fill progresses. The sluices are carried parallel to, and just inside of, these dykes. The sluices discharge their water-earth mixture at intervals, the water fanning out and flowing towards the central pool which is maintained at the desired level by discharge control. While flowing from the sluices, coarse material is deposited first and then finer material is deposited (fine material has a slower terminal velocity thus takes longer to settle, see Stokes' Law ) as
SECTION 20
#1732779658284682-399: The flow velocity is reduced towards the center of the dam. This fine material forms an impervious core to the dam. The water flow must be well controlled at all times, otherwise the central section may be bridged by tongues of coarse material which would facilitate seepage through the dam later. Hydraulic fill dams can be dangerous in areas of seismic activity due to the high susceptibility of
713-432: The pool was gradually drained in order to deliver sediment directly downstream to the sediment-deficient Rio Grande and increase water availability. This caused a sharp reduction in recreation at the now dry reservoir, and in 2015, the area was closed to the public. Today, without sediment control or recreation functions, the dam operates solely for flood-control purposes. The reservoir it creates, Jemez Canyon Reservoir, has
744-424: The primary fill. Almost 100 dams of this design have now been built worldwide since the first such dam was completed in 1962. All asphalt-concrete core dams built so far have an excellent performance record. The type of asphalt used is a viscoelastic - plastic material that can adjust to the movements and deformations imposed on the embankment as a whole, and to settlement of the foundation. The flexible properties of
775-501: The reservoir begins to move the entire structure. The embankment, having almost no elastic strength, would begin to break into separate pieces, allowing the impounded reservoir water to flow between them, eroding and removing even more material as it passes through. In the final stages of failure, the remaining pieces of the embankment would offer almost no resistance to the flow of the water and continue to fracture into smaller and smaller sections of earth or rock until they disintegrate into
806-399: The river bed and 95 sq mi (250 km ) reservoir make it the largest earth-filled dam in the world. The principal element of the project is an embankment 9,000 feet (2,700 m) long with a maximum height of 465 feet (142 m). The dam used approximately 200 million cubic yards (152.8 million cu. meters) of fill, which makes it one of the largest man-made structures in
837-412: The uncompacted, cohesion-less soils in them to liquefaction . The Lower San Fernando Dam is an example of a hydraulic fill dam that failed during an earthquake. In these situations, a dam built of compacted soil may be a better choice. Poorly built hydraulic fill dams pose a risk of catastrophic failure. The Fort Peck Dam is an example of a hydraulic fill dam that failed during construction where
868-404: The upstream face and made of masonry , concrete , plastic membrane, steel sheet piles, timber or other material. The impervious zone may also be inside the embankment, in which case it is referred to as a "core". In the instances where clay is used as the impervious material, the dam is referred to as a "composite" dam. To prevent internal erosion of clay into the rock fill due to seepage forces,
899-414: The world. Because earthen dams can be constructed from local materials, they can be cost-effective in regions where the cost of producing or bringing in concrete would be prohibitive. Rock -fill dams are embankments of compacted free-draining granular earth with an impervious zone. The earth used often contains a high percentage of large particles, hence the term "rock-fill". The impervious zone may be on
930-602: Was constructed in 1953 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding on the Jemez River to protect farmland and property downstream in the Rio Grande Valley . Shortly after, in May-June 1958, high spring runoff in the Jemez Mountains filled the reservoir to 71,220 acre-feet. Originally, the dam operated on a 48-hour hold regiment after storm events and during the spring runoff. This
961-553: Was to allow sediments to settle out of suspension before releasing the waters downstream into the Rio Grande . In early 1979, a permanent pool of 2,000 acre-feet was established behind the dam for sediment control purposes "to decrease aggradation in the Rio Grande channel and thereby maintain or improve channel conveyance for Rio Grande Compact deliveries." In October of 1984, the pool was increased to 3,000 acre-feet. In 2001,