Devils Lake, a terminal lake in northeast North Dakota (USA), has experienced catastrophic flooding since 1993. From January 31, 1993, to December 31, 2014, lake level rose from 433.62 to 442.44 m, lake area expanded from 179.9 to 653.5 km², and lake volume increased from 0.70 to 3.80 km³. More than $1 billion ($USD) has been spent in government payments to mitigate direct, primary, tangible flood damages. This paper provides a case study of the hydrological basis of the Devils Lake flood disaster. The unique geomorphic setting, paleoclimatic record, and hydroclimatic conditions of the region are summarized, and a wide range of hydroclimatic data is examined to provide a broad understanding of the physical basis of the flood disaster. The primary cause of the disaster was a transition to a sustained wetter climate that resulted in a dramatic response in basin hydrological variables in 1993. The transition from a long-term dry period to a long-term wet period caused the lake water budget to begin to change from an atmosphere-controlled water budget dominated by precipitation input to an amplifier lake water budget dominated by surface runoff input to the lake. Other important hydrological factors include a nonlinear precipitation–runoff relationship following the long-term drought, fill-spill and fill-merge hydrological behavior that is characteristic of wetland complexes, an increase in the lake area-to-basin area ratio, and the critical role of frozen soils in controlling infiltration and runoff production of spring snowmelt. Engineering works to manage lake volume through two outlets have reduced, but not entirely eliminated, future flood risk.

In this work, uniaxial fatigue tests combined with post-test X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning were conducted on marble samples with different interbed orientations, in order to reveal the anisotropic damage evolution characteristics during rock failure. The dynamic elastic modulus, damping ratio, fatigue deformation, damage evolution, accumulative damage modeling and crack pattern were systematically analyzed. The testing results indicate that the interbed structure in marble affects the damage evolution and the associated dynamic mechanical behaviors. The damage curve in “S” style indicates three-stage trend, namely, initial damage stage, steady damage stage and the accelerated damage stage. The damage index during cyclic deformation for marble presents obvious discrepancy. In addition, a fatigue damage prediction models was employed numerically as double-term power equations based on the experimental data. It is found that the selected damage model is suitable in modeling the rapid damage growth in the early and final stage of rock fatigue lifetime. Moreover, post-test CT scanning further reveals the anisotropic damage characteristics of marble, the crack pattern in the fractured sample is controlled by the interbed structure. What is more, the most striking founding is that the fracture degree is in consistent with the damage accumulation within the steady damage stage. Through a series of damage mechanical behavior analysis, the internal mechanism of the effect of interbed orientation on damage evolution of marble is firstly documented.

This paper presents the main results from an investigation into the slope stability of unsaturated waste rock piles with various configurations and surface recharge conditions. The analyses first consider waste rock piles with different internal and external configurations, under steady-state conditions to evaluate the effect of the pile geometry on the factor of safety. Transient analyses are then conducted to evaluate the influence of rainfalls of different intensities and durations. For six waste rock pile configurations, the results illustrate how the external geometry of the pile influences the factor of safety. The results presented here show how surface infiltration (water recharge), external geometry, and internal pile features affect unsaturated water flow, pore water pressure (matric suction), and material strength, which in turn influence slope stability. Despite the relatively large imposed recharges, following major precipitation events, the results indicate that the decrease of the factor of safety FS is relatively small when compared with the effect of other influential factors. The results also demonstrate that the external geometry of the waste rock pile has the most significant impact on the factor of safety, indicating that pile stability can be controlled with an appropriate design. Waste rock piles with a uniform slope (single bench) should be avoided as this construction method leads to the lowest factor of safety. The overall results clearly demonstrate that the best way to improve the stability of waste rock piles is to use a design and construction method with benches of limited size.