Garibaldi Lake Task
Estimate how much water the Barrier contains behind it in the lake
If the Barrier faulted, what do you think would happen? Consider how much water would escape, and what kind of power is the escaping water equivalent to?
If we are to find how much water there is in the lake we must first find the volume. To find this we must multiply the surface area by the average depth. The surface area is 9.94km² and the average depth is 119m. When we measure the volume we want the units in litres
9.94km² = 9 940 000m²
9 940 000m² is the surface area so we then multiply by the average depth which is 119m to get the volume.
9 940 000m² x 119m = 1 182 860 000m cubed
Next we have to change this to litres to find how out how much water is within the lake.
1m cubed is 1000L so 1 182 860 000m cubed x 1000L =
1 182 860 000 000L of water
this is an over estimate as the depth of the water isn’t all going to be at the same level.
If the barrier broke and all of the water came out 1 182 860 000kg of force would be rushing out as 1L is equal to 1kg. This can’t happen though as the bottom of the lake isn’t flat but is rounded and the barrier is higher than the water so it can’t all rush out at once if at all. This will decrease the number of litres of water that will rush out and in turn decrease how much force is created. The destruction would still be absolutely devastating to all the land that was hit by this sudden wave of water.
Sources
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_Lake
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barrier