The Mighty Dams Quiz

Engineering Marvels: Three Mega Dams - Three Gorges, Hoover, and Grand Coulee

• The Three Gorges Dam in China harnesses the power of the Yangtze River, producing 5 million times more power than Debton.
• The dam consists of 32 generators, each producing as much electricity as a small nuclear power plant, and together they provide power for 60 million Chinese.
• The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric project in the world, almost twice the size of the next largest project in Brazil.
• The French built the Mirage Dam in 1878 to generate electricity on a larger scale, diverting the Dordoin River and producing 128 megawatts.
• The Hoover Dam in the US was built in the 1930s to provide water and power to cities in the Western United States.
• The Hoover Dam contains six million tons of concrete and took 125 years to finish shrinking and cooling down naturally.
• To expedite the cooling process, the dam's chief engineer, Frank Crow, embedded water pipes into the concrete and used chilled Colorado River water to cool it down.
• The Grand Coulee Dam in the US was built to withstand the destructive power of overflowing water, following the catastrophic Johnstown Flood in 1889.
• The Three Gorges Dam contains more concrete than any other structure on Earth, with a colossal amount of concrete at the base and a length of two kilometers.
• Chinese engineers implemented various cooling measures to prevent cracks in the dam, including cooling aggregates, adding ice, and using a fog spray system to block solar radiation.
• The Three Gorges Dam required the relocation of over a million people and the construction of thousands of new houses for the displaced citizens.
• The Three Gorges Dam presents logistical challenges due to the flooding of over 150,000 acres of land along the Yangtze River's banks.