The Dam Didn't Break. 1,900 People Died Anyway: The Vajont Dam Disaster

On 9 October 1963 a mountain slid into the reservoir behind the Vajont Dam in the Italian Alps and pushed the water over the top. About 1,900 people died in the valley below. The dam is still standing today. It never failed. The mountain had been moving for three years, and they had been measuring it. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold Open 1:00 The Ordinary Day 2:01 The Fault 5:00 The Failure 6:35 The Aftermath 8:00 What Changed SOURCES Edoardo Semenza's geological survey of the Vaiont valley (1959–60); the Milan tribunal's acquittal of Tina Merlin (30 November 1960); records of the L'Aquila trial (1968) and the Court of Cassation (1971); Genevois & Ghirotti and later geological studies of the Vaiont rockslide; UNESCO Memory of the World register; Italian Civil Protection Department. ARCHIVAL IMAGES (via Wikimedia Commons) 1963 photographs: Ispettorato Vigili del Fuoco / Vigili del Fuoco (public domain); US Army (public domain); Maurizio Reberschak collection (public domain); unknown photographers, 1950s–1963 (public domain). Construction and pre-1963 photographs: Torno S.p.A. (CC BY-SA 4.0); Simone Aime archive (CC BY-SA 4.0); unknown photographer (CC BY-SA 4.0). Present-day photographs: VENET01 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Im Fokus (CC BY-SA 4.0); Andre86 (CC0).