Breach of a tailings dam in the 2011 earthquake in Japan

The eastern region of the northern part of Japanese mainland has been known historically as an area of mines producing gold and silver. When the extraordinarily strong earthquake rocked the eastern part of the Japanese mainland on March 11, 2011, there were more than 20 old and new dams retaining tailings from many mines.Out of these, three dams suffered breach due to liquefaction of tailings materials and released a large amount of slime, bringing about damage to farmlands and houses downstream. Of particular interest was Kayakari dam at Ohya mine that failed and Takasega-mori dam in its vicinity that did not, although they were equally subjected to strong shaking.In this paper features of these two dams in the design and construction, and damage or non-damage during the earthquake will be described, together with the geotechnical investigations and some analyses that were conducted after the earthquake.