Keeping the water in a reservoir is an obvious challenge for any dam. But for Iraq’s Mosul Dam, it’s especially challenging because the dam was built on a foundation of gypsum, a highly water-soluble mineral. Since it was built, Mosul Dam’s water has been eating away at the underlying bedrock, making sinkholes, forcing gaps, and generally working its way out. That, obviously, creates a huge risk for dam failure and massive downstream flooding.
To get the dam stabilized–at least to a point where Iraqi engineers could keep up with filling the holes as they form–took a massive international engineering project, carried out in the shadow of armed conflict. (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering)
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