On March 12, 252 dams were inspected after the severe earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 in Japan. It was found that 6 embankment dams suffered from shallow cracking on the crest. A small slope failure occurred on the reservoir at a concrete gravity dam, but it was not serious. All these dams function well with no problems. There are still four dams not accessible which are in the quake area. Fujinuma Dam, a 17.5 m high earthfill dam, was reported to have failed according to the news media in Japan. Its crest length is 133 m and the reservoir capacity is 1.5 million m3. There is no detailed information on this dam available right now. When the access roads are resumed, the Japanese experts will dispatch a team to look into dams. More details of the behavior of dams during this event will be reported later after the carefully detail examines of the dams. (Based on materials provided by JCOLD professionals on March 13,2011)
