earth science

Tangjiashan Lake

Tangjiashan Lake is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tangjiashan Lake rather than just read about it. In short: Tangjiashan Lake (Chinese: 唐家山堰塞湖, literally "Tang's Mountain landslide dam-created lake") is a landslide dam-created lake on the Jian River, which was formed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its name comes from the nearby mountain Tangjiashan.

Key takeaways

Tangjiashan Lake belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tangjiashan Lake to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tangjiashan Lake from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tangjiashan Lake (Chinese: 唐家山堰塞湖, literally "Tang's Mountain landslide dam-created lake") is a landslide dam-created lake on the Jian River, which was formed by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Its name comes from the nearby mountain Tangjiashan. On May 24, 2008, the water level rose by 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in a single day, reaching a depth of 23 metres (75 ft), just 29 metres (95 ft) below the barrier level. On June 9, 2008, more than 250,000 people had been evacuated from Mianyang in anticipation of the Tangjiashan Lake dam bursting. A similar lake in the same province formed 222 years earlier caused one of the worst landslide-related disasters in history. On June 10, 1786, a landslide dam on Sichuan's Dadu River, created by an earthquake ten days earlier, burst and caused a flood that extended 1400 km downstream and killed 100,000 people. A "relatively strong" aftershock on June 8, 2008, shook the massive earthquake-formed lake that has been threatening to flood more than 1 million people and triggered landslides in surrounding mountains. Soldiers used digging equipment, explosives, and even missiles to blast channels in the dam in an attempt to relieve the pressure behind it.

History The flow from the sluice channel cut into the dam increased dramatically on June 10, 2008, going from 300 cubic metres/second to 7000 cubic metres/second in the span of four hours. The muddy waters flowed rapidly downstream causing flooding in the evacuated town of Beichuan and overtopping of dams. Starting in June 2009, the lake was stabilized by strengthening the banks to prevent new landslides. In 2012, a discharge channel was finished, allowing the water level in the lake to be controlled. In 2013 broken banks from a severe flood caused the lake's water to fall to 503 metres above sea level, 40 metres below its peak and 9 metres below its 2010 level. As water receded, the Xuanping town in Sichuan was revealed.

The lake is now within the Beichuan Earthquake Museum. Landsat imagery from 2018 showed that the lake's size was greatly reduced due to natural erosion of the barrier and filling of the lake with sediment. As of 2018, there were plans to convert the lake to a controlled hydropower reservoir.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tangjiashan Lake

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tangjiashan Lake claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tangjiashan Lake before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tangjiashan Lake ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tangjiashan Lake

In research: Tangjiashan Lake appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tangjiashan Lake in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tangjiashan Lake is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Bodies of water of Sichuan, Lakes of China, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tangjiashan Lake outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tangjiashan Lake in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tangjiashan Lake means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tangjiashan Lake out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tangjiashan Lake in simple terms?

Why does Tangjiashan Lake matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tangjiashan Lake?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tangjiashan Lake.