The Aberfan disaster occurred on Friday, October 21, 1966, at 9:15am. 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a waste pile ("slag heap") containing unwanted rock from the local coal mine collapsed onto the village of Aberfan in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales. The children killed were mainly pupils at the Pantglas Junior School which was situated close to the pile.
At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster the National Coal Board was found to have been responsible for the disaster due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". The collapse was found to have been caused by a build up of water in the pile _ when a small rotational slip occurred the saturated fine material of the tip liquefied and it flowed down the mountain.
External link
BBC _ On This Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/21/newsid-2705000/2705335.stm)
Thom Parrott's song Aberfan (http://www.geocities.com/parrottsongs/lyrics/songs_a.html)
Aberfan: Government and Disasters (http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/politics/aberfan/home.htm)
Aberfan (in Welsh, the 'f' is pronounced like the 'v' in English) is a small village 5 miles (8 km) south of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.
At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the AberfanDisaster the NCB was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication".
The collapse was found to have been caused by a build-up of water in the pile and, when a small rotational slip occurred, the disturbance caused the saturated, fine material of the tip to liquefy (thixotropy) and flow down the mountain.
Ideally, a premonition of a disaster should be used to prevent the disaster.
The disaster touched nearly every family in the town and effectively extinguished an entire generation of children in the town.
The mother of one of the deceased students reported that her ten year old (who had died in the disaster) had a dream the night before which foretold the disaster.
Feeds |
Contact