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Why did Ecuador's largest waterfall disappear?

#1
C C Offline
Why did Ecuador's largest waterfall disappear?
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climat...s-vanished

EXCERPT: Earlier this year, the 500-foot-tall San Rafael waterfall in the Ecuadorian Amazon seemed to vanish. The country's largest waterfall in both height and volume, its disappearance wasn't caused by a sudden drop in water levels, but instead because the Coca River decided to literally "drop." A few meters behind the waterfall, a gigantic hole opened up, changing the riverbed and diverting the river through a nearby arch that survived the collapse.

[...] Exactly why the Coca River suddenly tunneled through its riverbed is a hotly debated topic between geologists and conservationists. ... Alfredo Carrasco, a geologist and former secretary of Natural Capital at the ministry [...says...] that the San Rafael's location within a volcanic and earthquake-prone region likely played a role.

[...] Others, however, point to the existence of the new Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, which sits about 20 kilometers upstream of the San Rafael waterfall as a possible culprit. ... Emilio Cobo believes it's no coincidence that the riverbed eroded only a few years after the hydroelectric plant opened...  (MORE - details)

- - - Prediction made in 2010, that was inaccurate specifically yet possibly came true in general:

Ecuador’s tallest waterfall to be destroyed by Chinese dam
https://news.mongabay.com/2010/09/ecuado...inese-dam/

INTRO: San Rafael Falls, Ecuador’s tallest waterfall, is threatened by a Chinese-funded hydroelectric project, reports Save America’s Forests, an environmental group. The 1,500 megawatt Coca-Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Project will divert water flow away from the 480-foot San Rafael Falls, leaving it “high and dry.” Worse, the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2016, will be pressure on Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, an area so renowned for its biodiversity that “even the oil companies spared this area during prospection and development of pipeline corridors in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” according to Save America’s Forests, which says the falls have become the principal attraction of Sumaco... (MORE)

- - - Ecuador paying big for a faulty electric plant, plus loss of water fall attraction?

Coca Codo Sinclair Dam: The plant became fully operational in November 2016. [...] As of December 2018, thousands of large and small cracks have been found in the dam's machinery [blamed on Chinese contractor]. . . . Over the years, China provided $19 billion in the form of loans to Ecuador for the construction of "bridges, highways, irrigation, schools, health clinics and a half dozen dams" as well as the Coca Codo Sinclair dam. According to an article in The New York Times, Ecuador repays its debt to China by providing China with oil "at a discount". By 2018, this meant that China kept 80 percent of oil produced in Ecuador. The loan from China’s Export-Import Bank for the Coca Codo Sinclair Dam amounts to $1.7 billion with an interest rate of 7% interest over 15 years which is $125 million a year in interest alone.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/t9axt15rNo0
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#2
Zinjanthropos Offline
If a beaver does this we blow it and its dam to pieces.
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#3
C C Offline
(Mar 29, 2020 04:11 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If a beaver does this we blow it and its dam to pieces.

PostScript: Lots of luck with that Huawei decision, Boris.

"Just because you're surrounded by countrymen who are paranoid about an authoritarian socialist market economy doesn't eliminate the possibility that the commies really are out to get you." --alternate history version of Yossarian slash Josef Heller
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#4
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Mar 29, 2020 04:12 PM)C C Wrote:
(Mar 29, 2020 04:11 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If a beaver does this we blow it and its dam to pieces.

PostScript: Lots of luck with that Huawei decision, Boris.

"Just because you're surrounded by countrymen who are paranoid about an authoritarian socialist market economy doesn't eliminate the possibility that the commies really are out to get you." --alternate history version of Yossarian slash Josef Heller

Maybe the world (UN) can get China to pay war reparations.  Wink It's the Blitz, sort of.
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