1965 El Cobre tailings dam failure
At 12:35 p.m. an earthquake centred in the Cabildo and La Ligua area brought down two tailings dams holding copper mine waste, and the mining town of El Cobre in the path of the flow was buried. Accounts differ on the toll and on the mine's name: one gives over 200 deaths at El Cobre, another more than 300 at what it calls the El Soldado copper mine, and a third describes a 70 metre dam shattered by the shock sending two million tons of water and mud into the town and burying 200 people.
- Date
- 1965-03-28
- Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
- 350
- What the pin marks
- The position the cited page gives for the mining disaster at El Cobre, not the earthquake's epicentre.
- Where the position is published
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_La_Ligua_earthquake
Category: Disasters & Incidents
Tags: chile, tailings dam, earthquake, contested toll
Coordinates: -32.63889, -71.16194
Part of Dam failures that killed 100 or more people since 1900
More in Dam failures that killed 100 or more people since 1900
- 2019 Brumadinho dam disaster
- 1972 Buffalo Creek flood
- 1928 St. Francis Dam failure
- 1972 Canyon Lake Dam failure in the Black Hills flood
- 1953 Tangiwai disaster
- 1959 Vega de Tera dam failure
- 1959 Malpasset Dam failure
- 1935 Sella Zerbino dam failure at Molare
- 1923 Gleno Dam failure
- 1985 Val di Stava dam collapse
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