Historic Failure of the Teton Dam, Idaho and its Impacts on Future Dam Construction
Faculty Mentor
Richard Orndorff
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
10-5-2023 9:00 AM
End Date
10-5-2023 10:45 AM
Location
PUB NCR
Department
Geology
Abstract
The Teton Dam is located in southeastern Idaho 15 miles northeast of Rexburg, near the Wyoming border. The dam was intended to help with flooding and to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation to surrounding cities and farms in the Upper Snake River Valley. Construction on the dam began in the summer of 1972, and it was completed in June, 1975 with a total cost of $39 million. The dam stood 305 ft tall and spanned 3,100 ft across with its intended reservoir extending 17 miles upstream with a holding capacity of 288,000 acre-ft. Only a year later, on June 5, 1976, it experienced a catastrophic failure during its first filling. This collapse occurred due to a combination of hydraulic fracturing of jointed rock and internal erosion of the right embankment of the dam. The outburst of water exceeded a flow rate of 1,000,000 ft3/sec and resulted in 11 fatalities with over $400 million in property damage. The failure of the Teton Dam has been a case study in engineering and led to development of the Bureau of Reclamation’s safety program that has been recognized as the worldwide standard for dam safety and risk management.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Kevin, "Historic Failure of the Teton Dam, Idaho and its Impacts on Future Dam Construction" (2023). 2023 Symposium. 45.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2023/res_2023/p1_2023/45
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Historic Failure of the Teton Dam, Idaho and its Impacts on Future Dam Construction
PUB NCR
The Teton Dam is located in southeastern Idaho 15 miles northeast of Rexburg, near the Wyoming border. The dam was intended to help with flooding and to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation to surrounding cities and farms in the Upper Snake River Valley. Construction on the dam began in the summer of 1972, and it was completed in June, 1975 with a total cost of $39 million. The dam stood 305 ft tall and spanned 3,100 ft across with its intended reservoir extending 17 miles upstream with a holding capacity of 288,000 acre-ft. Only a year later, on June 5, 1976, it experienced a catastrophic failure during its first filling. This collapse occurred due to a combination of hydraulic fracturing of jointed rock and internal erosion of the right embankment of the dam. The outburst of water exceeded a flow rate of 1,000,000 ft3/sec and resulted in 11 fatalities with over $400 million in property damage. The failure of the Teton Dam has been a case study in engineering and led to development of the Bureau of Reclamation’s safety program that has been recognized as the worldwide standard for dam safety and risk management.
