I could make some pretty crude jokes comparing this emergency valve at a dam to my bathroom trips after eating a bunch of Taco Bell, but I won’t do that. I’m trying to provide a more mature experience in these blogs than making jokes about how this dam’s emergency valve release looks like god is taking a huge piss.
Again, I won’t make those kinds of jokes.
In all seriousness, the sheer power of this valve releasing 20k liters of water a second is absolutely mind-blowing. To put that into context, you could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in just two minutes at that rate.
NOTE: I tried to calculate how long it would take to fill Lake Michigan at that flow rate, and let’s just say I underestimated how many gallons of water are in that lake by a few trillion. (Lake Michigan is estimated to hold 1 quadrillion gallons of water… insane)
Anyways, enjoy Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame geek out at watching the emergency valve dump a crap load of water into the valley below. It’s pretty remarkable, and I’d love to see something like this in person someday.
