# How Much Damage Has The Aswan Dam Caused? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716 "2012-09-05T05:27:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716/21 "2012-09-07T03:31:45Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Ps. you can’t compare the relatively tiny [South Fork Dam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Fork_Dam)(which caused the Johnstown Flood), built in the late 1800s and with a resevoir holding about 0.02 cubic kilometres with the Aswan High Dam which holds back 132 cubic kilometres. You can. You just did it there. I assume you meant something like you can’t equate the two. But you can in some ways. Not this one though. There is much more pressure behind the Aswan Dam, so it will erode faster than a much smaller one if water begins to penetrate. In the other thread I point out how the Aswan High Dam could be breached with conventional weapons. That is if you wanted to do it in an extremely inefficient and costly manner. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716/22 "2012-09-07T18:18:26Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Maybe but what sort of air-delivered ordinance can blast a creater more than 40 metres across (and tens of metres deep across the 40 metre+ wide crater) through compacted clay? It doesn’t even have to be a crater, just a wide-enough crack extending below the water line. The same effects will occur. The bulldozers might get there fast enough to plug it, or they might not - and follow-up air strikes would certainly interfere with that. > [@](#): > > And the Egyptians could probably open the sluice gates fast enough to drop the level below the breach in fairly short order. Maybe, but the sluice gates, or at least the control building, are bombable too. That’s how the Chosin Reservoir was taken out back in the Korean War - by a couple of Navy TBM’s carrying torpedos to blow the sluice gates. The effect was still a massive, sudden water release. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716/23 "2012-09-07T19:35:17Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > It doesn’t even have to be a crater, just a wide-enough crack extending below the water line. The same effects will occur. The bulldozers might get there fast enough to plug it, or they might not - and follow-up air strikes would certainly interfere with that. > > Maybe, but the sluice gates, or at least the control building, are bombable too. That’s how the Chosin Reservoir was taken out back in the Korean War - by a couple of Navy TBM’s carrying torpedos to blow the sluice gates. The effect was still a massive, sudden water release. IIRC, the problem at Aswan is the extra height from the top of the dam to even the high water mark. Unless it was a surprise attack they could lower the water line even further. So you need some significant bang to get the leak started. And since it’s not a solid material (clay and rocks), you really need to extend a trench across the dam to get water flowing. It’s probably easier to drop commandos to manually set explosives than use all the addition bombs needed to because of their inaccuracies. Laser guided stuff would be a waste of money, so if you are going to bomb, you’d use a lot of conventional bombs. As mentioned upthread, it’s a lot easier to just blow the shit out of Cairo. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716/24 "2012-09-07T19:42:35Z")
You wouldn’t necessarily have to get all the way through the dam either. If you destroy the filter, the clay core will erode. So, that’s less than halfway through the dam. That wouldn’t be a terribly abrupt process, but it’d do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716/25 "2012-09-07T20:00:35Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > You wouldn’t necessarily have to get all the way through the dam either. If you destroy the filter, the clay core will erode. So, that’s less than halfway through the dam. That wouldn’t be a terribly abrupt process, but it’d do the trick. That;s really the trick if you want it to give way. Even a trickle at the water line all the way across the dam will erode it very quickly, and eventually it will give way under pressure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-damage-has-the-aswan-dam-caused/633716.md?page=1)