Clancy Tucker's Blog: October 2019

1 November 2019 - CARMEN TOWER - MEXICAN LANDSLIDE SURVIVOR

CARMEN TOWER

- MEXICAN LANDSLIDE SURVIVOR -

G'day folks,

This lonely tower survived the landslide that devastated much of a Mexican mining town.

Near the town of Tlalpujahua stands the Carmen Tower. It’s a stalwart survivor of the tragic day a massive landslide buried a large chunk of the town beneath layers of mud and debris.

Tlalpujahua was once home to the Dos Estrellas Mine, which, at the time, was among the leading producers of gold in the 20th century. The tons of earth extracted from its depths, along with the water and cyanide they were mixed with, were stored atop the ravine, inside an improvised dam.

But that ramshackle dam had damning consequences. On the night of May 27, 1937, tragedy struck. After intense rain, the dam collapsed early in the morning, burying the town in tons of mud. Villagers had to dig through the debris to hunt for survivors or recover the bodies of their relatives and friends.

Now, little remains of the parts of town that were buried beneath the mud. The Carmen Tower, a remnant of an old church, is the only surviving above-ground structure. The area is now considered an archaeological site. To reach it, you have to cross dirt corridors, within which the ground and the original details of the streets and some houses can still be seen. In front of the tower, it’s even possible to see some tombs from the old cemetery and the original floor of the church.

According to local guides, all the land was deserted, but when the settlers placed a layer of fertile soil atop the mud, grass began to grow. However, it’s said there are no trees because the earth still contains the cyanide that the mine sheltered as waste.

Clancy's comment: Sadly, natural disasters have changed so many lives.

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31 October 2019 - REMAINS OF 1925 DAM DISASTER IN WALES

REMAINS OF 1925

DAM DISASTER IN WALES

G'day folks,

Here is another dam disaster. The worst flood disaster in Welsh history might have been a lot worse if it had not happened on movie night.

Llyn Eigiau, a lake at the edge of the Carneddau mountains in Snowdonia, Wales, was the origin of the worst dam disaster in Welsh history. The devastating flood of 1925 is commemorated by a plaque placed on the massive boulders that came to rest after destroying much of the village of Dolgarrog.

In 1911, a dam three-quarters of a mile long and 35 feet high was built across part of the eastern side of the lake to supply water for the hydroelectric power station in the village and power the aluminum works next to the station. A new tramway was constructed to bring materials for the dam from Dolgarrog.

It is reported that the original contractor withdrew from the project, unhappy that corners were being cut in the construction of the dam. And indeed, his misgivings were realized. In November, 1925, after 26 inches of rain fell in just five days, the Eigiau dam failed. The water flowed down to Coedty Reservoir, which rapidly caused its earth bank dam to burst as well and release billions of gallons of water.

The torrent of water, estimated at over 70 billion gallons, flowed down into the village of Dolgarrog, creating massive damage and leading to the loss of 16 lives. The death toll could have been worse, but it was fortunate that the breach occurred on the night when the local community hall was used as a cinema. The hall was on slightly higher ground, and many of the town residents were safe inside.

The force of water carried some massive boulders (some as heavy as 200 tonnes) down to into the village, which was destroyed by the flood. Gwilym Wyn Roberts, whose mother survived the flood, told the BBC that “Cows were seen hanging from the trees and the aluminum works were submerged under 5 feet of mud.”

These boulders are now marked with a memorial plaque, and the village has been rebuilt away from the devastated area. The remains of the dam are easily accessible on foot from a parking lot about half a mile away from the breached dam wall.

A close look at the remains of the Eigiau dam today reveals that the foundations were insufficient, and close observation reveals large lumps of unmixed concrete. The dam material that can be seen through existing holes tends to break away easily and is clearly badly graded. After the disaster, an additional breach was created in the dam to ensure that water could not build up to dangerous levels. A Parliamentary investigation led to more stringent rules on British dam construction, as part of the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act in 1930.

Today the lake covers an area of about 120 acres (about half the impounded area when the dam was in use) and is only about 32 foot deep.

Clancy's comment: It sure could have been a lot worse, eh?

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30 October 2019 - PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 15TH SMITHSONIAN PHOTO CONTEST

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE

15TH SMITHSONIAN

PHOTO CONTEST

G'day folks,

Sit back and enjoy some great photographs.

Once again, the Smithsonian Magazine is holding its annual photo contest. With every year that passes, the competition keeps getting fiercer and fiercer, and as you'll see from the photos below, this year's results are absolutely breathtaking. Below, you'll find a selection of some of the most spectacular entries. Enjoy!

Clancy's comment: Well done! Stunning, eh? Many thanks to the photographers for sharing their work.

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29 October 2019 - PREHISTORIC CAVE ART IN INDONESIA

PREHISTORIC CAVE ART

IN INDONESIA

G'day folks,

These 40,000-year-old stenciled hands are older than the famous cave art in France and Spain.

A torch beam finds a stencil of a hand, its ochre outline surprisingly vibrant given its age. Next to it, a sketch of a babirusa—a type of wild “pig-deer” found in Indonesia—shows such attention to detail that the gender of the animal (female) is still clear nearly 36,000 years after its creation. It’s thought to be the oldest known example of figurative art in the world.

The Pleistocene-era rock art is spread throughout the karst caves within the Maros and Pangkep regions in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Researchers from Australia’s Griffith University used uranium series dating and found that one of the handprints was roughly 40,000 years old. The collection of paintings, which includes the handprint and the babirusa, contains artwork that is slightly older than the images found in European caves.

The rock art’s ancient age shattered the pre-existing notion among many Western archaeologists and historians that the cave art originated in modern-day Europe. While little-known, these Indonesian cave drawings are even older than the famous stenciled caves in France and Spain.

But though it wasn’t celebrated until recently, the cave art wasn’t unknown. H.R Van Heekeren, a Dutch archaeologist, documented the figures and published his work in 1950. However, the paintings were deemed to be of no real significance and subsequently no additional exploration was done until nearly 60 years later.

The purpose behind the rock art is unclear. It’s commonly thought that sites with rock art are ceremonial, but there’s no actual evidence to say whether this is truly the case. One theory is that the rock art was an early library cataloging the animals and fish eaten by the people who dwelled here. Another theory is that the stenciled hands may have more symbolic meanings, such as protecting a house, expressing a person’s connection to the place, or attempting to communicate with the spiritual realm.

Getting to the karsts requires boating down the narrow river before an hour long walk through rice paddies. A monkey or two may shriek from the tops of the strange palm trees—described by the guide as “shrimpfingers”—before disappearing. Nearby, cows laze and graze under the monolith overhangs and ducks forage for huge snails in the rice paddies.

Clancy's comment: These sites amaze me. However, we have cave paintings in Australia, done by our Aborigines who have lived here for more than 65,000 years.

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28 October 2019 - CHECK OUT THESE WONDERS OF NATURE

CHECK OUT THESE

WONDERS OF NATURE

G'day folks,

Whether you are taking a small walk around the block or traveling to distant places abroad, nature can astonish you in its abilities and creations if you only know where to look. Sometimes nature even does things we didn’t know it could, either with the help of man or without our intervention. In the following pictures, you’ll see what vegetation can do and how powerful the creative power of nature is.