1.0 Introduction
The Vaiont Dam is located in the Northeastern Alps near Belluno,Italy along the Vaiont River Gorge. The Vaiont Dam separates the Vaiont Reservoir from the Paive River Valley, with Monte Toc along the southern border of the reservoir. Prior to the 1963 landslide, as shown in Figure 1(top), the mountain slope along the southern edge of the reservoir was created by a prehistoric landslide. In 1963 the Vaiont Dam was flooded over by more than 30 million cubic meters of water. More than 2000 people were killed in villages along the Paive River Valley during the flood. The flood was caused by a massive landslide down Monte Toc into the Vaiont Reservoir. The disaster was attributed to mismanagement of the reservoir construction and filling process, resulting in years of legal action. The immense number of investigations into the Monte Toc slope failure make it one of the most intensively studied in history. The purpose of this case study is to analyze data from previous investigations of the slope failure in an effort to provide further explanation of the cause and method of failure.