I would like to know the details from a geological standpoint leading
up to and following the Stava Tailings Dam Failure in Stava Italy,
1985.  Are there any credible geological publications outside of the
web?  Are there any case studies (in english)?  I am mostly interested
in resources to conduct my own research.

Dear sb3402-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. The Stava, a tailings dam that collapsed in 1985, was
actually located in Trento, Italy.

Here is a marvelous .gif animation of the dam failure and the immediate aftermath:
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/img/stavaa.gif

You can also view it in .avi format
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/img/stavav.avi

Below you will find an interesting online document that will lead you
to offline publications concerning the dam failure from a variety of
experts:

A Review of Scientific Contributions on the Stava Valley Disaster 
(Eastern Italian Alps), 19th July 1985
edited by Giovanni Tosatti
STAVA 1985
http://www.stava1985.it/ReviewScientificContributions.asp

Here are some of the more relevant ones:

David E. Alexander (1986) ? Northern Italian dam failure and mudflow,
July 1985. ?Disasters?, Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 3-7, The International
Journal of Disaster Studies and Practice, Foxcombe Publications,
London.
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Oxford,  U.K. 

Yoshio Muramoto, Takao Uno & Tamotsu Takahashi (1986) ? Investigation
on the collapse of the tailings dam at Stava in northern Italy.
Annuals, Disas. Prev. Res. Inst., Kyoto Univ., no. 29 A, pp. 19-52,
Kyoto.
- Disaster Prevention Research Institute Kyoto, Japan 

Giorgio Berti , Floriano Villa, Daria Dovera, Rinaldo Genevois & Josef
Brauns (1988) ? The disaster of Stava, northern Italy. ?Hydraulic Fill
Structures?, Proc. Am. Soc. Civ. Engrs, Geotech. Engng Div.,
Speciality Conf., pp. 492-510, Fort Collins, Colorado.
- ASCE, American Society of Civil Engineers  New York, U.S.A. 

THE PORE WATER PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION IN A TAILINGS BASIN DURING AND
AFTER CONSTRUCTION, WITH REFERENCE TO THE TAILINGS DAM DISASTER AT
STAVA, NEAR TESERO (ITALY), 19th JULY 1985
Robert E. Gibson, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Science, Imperial
College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London,
London SW7 2BU, England, U.K.

Tamotsu Takahashi (1991) ? The big mud flow in the Stava River, Italy.
In: T. Takahashi (ed.), ?Debris flow?, IAHR, pp. 92-99, Balkema,
Rotterdam.
- Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands

Rinaldo Genevois & Pia Rosella Tecca (1993) ? The tailings dams of
Stava (northern Italy): an analysis of the disaster. In: R.N.
Chowdhury & M. Sivakumar (eds.) Environmental Management Geo-water and
Engineering Aspects, pp. 23-36, Balkema.
- Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands 

Richard J. Chandler & Giovanni Tosatti (1995) ? The Stava tailings
dams failure, Italy, July 1985. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs Geotech. Engng,
Vol. 113, pp. 67-79, London.
- Thomas Telford Publishing, London, U.K.

M. Watanabe, R.P. Brenner, S. Malla & N. Solomatine (1996) ? Case
histories: examples of major mudflow disasters. Mudflows caused by dam
failures or glacial lake breaches in high mountains. Stava, Italy,
1985. In: M. Watanabe et Alii (eds.), ?Mudflows ? Experience and
Lessons learned from the Management of Major Disasters?, pp. 119-124,
Dept. of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations, New York ? Geneva.
- United Nations, Department of Humanitarian Affairs, Geneva, Switzerland

Geoffrey E. Blight (1997) ? Destructive mudflows as a consequence of
tailings dyke failures. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs Geotech. Engng, Vol.
125, pp. 9-18, London.
- Thomas Telford Publishing, London, U.K.

George Papageorgiou, Andy B. Fourie & Geoffrey E. Blight (1997) ? An
investigation of flow failures from breached tailings dams. In: P.G.
Marinos, G.C. Koukis, G.C. Tsiambaos, G.C. Stournaras (eds.),
Internat. Symp. on Engineering Geology and the Environment, 23-27 June
1997, Athens, vol. 3, pp. 2477-2482, Balkema, Rotterdam.
- Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands

Matteo Berti, Rinaldo Genevois & Pia Rosella Tecca (1997) ? The 1985
flow slide and debris flow at Stava (Italy). In: Cheng-Iung Chen
(ed.), 1st Internat. Conf. on ?Debris Flow Hazard Mitigation:
Mechanics, Prediction and Assessment?, 7-9 August 1997, San Francisco
(Cal.), Am. Soc. Civ. Engrs, pp. 309-321, New York.
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), New York, U.S.A.

You can find a great deal of information and even some videos on the
STAVA 1985 WEB SITE http://www.stava1985.it/

Views from helicopter flight over the flow slide  (MPEG video 4.6MB)
http://www.stava1985.it/Multimedia/stava_med.mpeg


You may find these tools useful in your research so I am including them as well:

TAILINGS DAM SLOPE STABILITY CALCULATOR
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/csst.html

TAILINGS FLOW SLIDE CALCULATOR
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/ctfs.html


PROPERTIES OF TAILINGS DAMS
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/mdap.html
(This one contains an extensive bibliography regarding sources for
information on the construction and functionality of tailings dams)

Bibliography
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/mdas.html#BIBL
(Another good bibliography regarding sources for information on the
construction and functionality of tailings dams)

Il disastro di Stava del 1985
http://www.flanet.org/aseva/evento.asp?FROM=qryBibliografia&WHERE=ID_Evento=11
(Another bibliography that contains some information sources in English)



This publication, which is a series of peer-reviewed papers, addresses
issues related to debris-flow mechanics to debris-flow hazards
prediction and assessment. ?In addition to the peer-reviewed papers,
this volume includes two invited papers. One presents an overview on
the geoscience and geotechnical engineering aspects of debris flow
while the other provides an overview of hydroscience and
hydrotechnical engineering aspects.? One of which is the Stava Dam
incident:

?Debris-Flow Hazards Mitigation: Mechanics, Prediction, and Assessment?
by Cheng-lung Chen, (editor), Member, ASCE, (Hydrologist, U.S.
Geological Survey, Water Res. Div., Western Region, Menlo Park, CA)
CIVIL ENGINEERING DATABASE
http://www.pubs.asce.org/WWWdisplaybn.cgi?078440268X



I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above

SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

Stava, tailings, dam, geological, geotechnical, white paper, report,
investigation, case study

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Request for Answer Clarification by sb3402-ga on 17 Mar 2004 14:07 PST

I have two to three weeks to obtain copies or view the publications
you listed.  I live in Colorado and am not sure how to accomplish
that, given most of them are foreign.  Any suggestions?

---

Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 17 Mar 2004 14:21 PST

You might try to contact the authors or publishers and see if you can
obtain them that way or perhaps obtain their ISBN numbers where
applicable. Your local library may also have some resources to help
you obtain some of the publications.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga