How much water does the lake obtain?
To determine a rough estimate of how much water this lake may be home to, we must find the volume of the lake.
Through research, I found that the lake is roughly identifiable as a rectangle. So we may make our calculations to height and depth. For depth, I found a few different results, but I will use the average depth.
So now we determined the volume, but we are not quite there yet. Next we must convert our answer into litres to be able to look at it more in the sense of fluids and not just an empty hole filled with empty space.
If the barrier faulted?
First we shall work out the logistics, the height of the lake is 258.7m and the height of the barrier is only 243m. Which means that the water containe within the barrier, goes deeper than the barrier itself. However if the barrier was demolished and the lake was freed, all of the water is expectedly not going to rush out, because some is further below the barrier. The impact on Squamish and surrounding towns would be great but however not as great as if the barrier was deeper and leveled with the water. Through further research I found that this lake is proven to eventually break, so our calculations have been useful in preparation.
A researcher by the name of Dr. Quane who works with this lake, estimated the impact of the release to be 200 times the energy released during the bomb on Hiroshima in World War II.
The surrounding area of this lake was deemed unsafe to inhabit due to the sketchy forming of the area and the continuously crumbling rocks being recorded. Volcano “Clinker Peak” is responsible for Lake Garibaldi.
If however the water was released, knowing the pressure and weight of the consequences would be helpful. And so I calculated essentially the weight of the water contained.
Since we are in Canada, I chose to convert in to Kg but I also converted to Lbs for the sake of accuracy.
I discovered a calculator online to help me with seeing just how fast water would travel and with what force if the barriers were happened to be let down.
Conclusion;
I definitely feel that this information is useful even just because of how it is proven this sort of incident is bound to happen at some point.
The damage it would do is not very quantifiable, it is unknown in what advancements and circumstances this would occur. Or for when it does, what sort of precautions have been assessed. This was a fairly eye opening task, just because of how close this lake is to us and how a simple expected tragedy could have so much damage. We hear about these things on the news and never think much of it until its right in front of our faces and we must deal with them. So that is what this task did for me.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_Lake
https://www.easycalculation.com/physics/classical-physics/force.php
http://www.squamishchief.com/news/garibaldi-lake-a-ticking-time-bomb-1.1753732
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barrier