30 Oct 2024        11:20:55 am

Geography

Three Gorges Dam

Tags : Three Gorges Dam

Topic: Dams and Reservoirs

Why in the news?

• The world\'s largest hydroelectric dam in China called the \"Three Gorges Dam\" is a very huge infrastructure project and its size is so big that it has affected the spin of Earth.
• The dam which is located in the Hubei province of central China is spread across the longest river in Eurasia, which is the Yangtze River. 
• The dam uses the flow of water from the three closest gorges, known as Qutangxia, Wuxia, and Xiling Xia, for spinning the turbine and generating electricity.

Source: WION

About Three Gorges Dam:

• It is located on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei Province.
• It is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station.
• The dam was completed in 2012 after nearly two decades of construction.
• Its staggering dimensions (2,335 m. long and 185 m.) make it the largest dam ever built.
• The dam’s reservoir has a capacity of 40 cubic kilometres (about 10 trillion gallons) of water, which can produce up to 22,500 megawatts of electricity.
• The dam uses the flow of water from the three closest gorges, known as Qutangxia, Wuxia, and Xiling Xia, for spinning the turbine and generating electricity
• Beyond its hydroelectric capabilities, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze River\'s shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space. 

Yangtze River:

• It is the longest river in both China and Asia and third longest river in the world, with a length of 6,300 km.
• It is also considered the longest river to exclusively flow within the borders of a single nation.
• It originates from the Plateau of Tibet, serves as the border between 10 provinces and finally ends into the East China Sea.
• More than three-fourths of the river’s course runs through mountains. 
• It has eight principal tributaries. On its left bank, from source to mouth, these are the Yalung, Min, Jialing, and Han rivers; those on the right bank include the Wu, Yuan, Xiang, and Gan rivers.

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