GC: n
CT: Teton Dam, a 305-foot high earthfill dam across the Teton River in Madison County, southeast Idaho, failed completely and released the contents of its reservoir at 11:57 AM on June 5, 1976. Failure was initiated by a large leak near the right (northwest) abutment of the dam, about 130 feet below the crest. The dam, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, failed just as it was being completed and filled for the first time. .
S: TETON – http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton_Dam/narrative.html (last access: 4 November 2014)
N: 1. abutment (n) 1640s, from abut + -ment. Originally any “junction;” the architectural usage is attested from 1793 (the notion is of the meeting-place of the arches of a bridge, etc.).
2. The part of a valley side (wall) against which a dam is constructed. An artificial abutment is sometimes constructed as a concrete gravity section, to take the thrust of an arch dam where there is no suitable natural abutment. Right and left abutments are those on respective sides of an observer looking downstream.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=abutment&searchmode=none (last access: 7 December 2014). 2. WATER – http://water.nv.gov/engineering/Dams/Glossary.cfm (last access: 4 November 2014)
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