Reservoir Dogs... or Fish... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lake Nasser

Beginning construction in 1960, the Aswan High Dam located in southern Egypt was built over the course of ten years. The controversial dam was funded by the Soviet Union and upon completion produced one of the world's largest man-made reservoirs, Lake Nasser. President at the time Gamal Abdel Nasser felt the dam was necessary for his plans to industrialize Egypt. Since ancient times, the Nile valley had been known to suffer from periodic flooding and drought which he believed the dam would help to alleviate and, in addition, stabilize the fertile rich area through irrigation. His plan for the dam would also manufacture hydroelectricity and create employment. The construction was generally considered a success and had significant impact on the Egyptian economy from the start. Nevertheless, the downside was hard to ignore: Tens of thousands of people were forced to relocate, particularly in northern Sudan, and multiple archaeologic sites were imperiled and remain at risk of being submerged.

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Answer: Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba was created when the concrete arch Kariba Dam was constructed between 1955 and 1959 on the Zambezi River. The Zambezi rises in Zambia and then flows briefly west before heading south and then east into the Indian Ocean. The Kariba Dam is located approximately 220 miles/350 kilometres northeast of Victoria Falls by air, and the long reservoir is located between the two. Besides a variety of fish, crocodiles and hippos also reside in the lake.

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Answer: Tasmania

At its peak capacity, Lake Gordon is the largest lake in Tasmania, and indeed in Australia, by volume, capable of holding more than 12.3 teralitres of water. Like many of the island state's reservoirs, Lake Gordon was created for the purpose of storing water for use in generating hydro-electric power - the area was flooded in 1974 while the Gordon Power Station opened four years later.

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Answer: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The Central Park Reservoir was built during the original design of Central Park by Frederick Law Olmstead in the 1800s. Originally a collecting reservoir for an aqueduct bringing water from upstate New York, the Central Park Reservoir served as the main supply of fresh water for Manhattan until it was decommissioned in 1993 in favor of other water supplies for fear it might become contaminated. New York City resident and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had an apartment overlooking the reservoir and was known to run around the 1.58 mile jogging track that surrounded it. After she passed away in May of 1994, New York City decided to honor the first lady who spent many years fighting for city restoration projects (most notably the renovation of Grand Central station) by renaming the Central Park reservoir after her.

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Answer: Peace River

The Peace River originates in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and then flows to northern Alberta. The W.A.C. Bennett dam, named for a Premier of British Columbia, is an earthfill dam built on the river, with construction starting in 1961 and finishing in 1968. The reservoir it created, Williston Lake, was named for Ray Gillis Williston, the Minister of Lands, Forests, and Water Resources at the time. The lake is the largest in British Columbia and one of the largest reservoirs by volume in the world. It is a popular spot for fishing, with salmon, pike, and a few varieties of trout among the fish available for anglers.

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Answer: England

The Lake District is possibly the most well-known internationally of England's national parks. This idyllic region in the northwestern county of Cumbria contains over twenty decently-sized natural and artificial lakes, with the subject of this question, Thirlmere, falling into the latter category. Originally, Thirlmere was a much smaller natural lake, but it was dammed and turned into a reservoir to better serve the water needs of Manchester and the neighboring counties.

Eburge provided this question.

Answer: To allow fish to migrate freely back and forth to the ocean

The Elwha River lies on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. The Elwha Dam was built in the 1910s and about 7 miles upstream the Glines Canyon Dam was built in the 1920s. The Elwha river is one of the few rivers to contain trout and salmon species that are anadromous (adult fish that live in the ocean but return to fresh water to spawn). Both of these dams were not built to allow fish to cross the dam so the fish were forced to live and spawn up the river which severely decimated their numbers. In addition, the utility of the dams was questioned as the energy produced by these dams was found to be minuscule compared to other more modern dams in the state. In 2011, one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects in U.S. history began with the removal of the Elwha Dam and finished in 2014 with the dismantling of the Glines Canyon Dam. The result was the elimination of Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills reservoirs, respectively, and the beginning of the reclamation of the ecosystem to its pre-1910 state.

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Answer: Yangtze

Beginning in 1994 and taking over 15 years to complete, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam has been mired in controversy. Its tremendous hydroelectric power capacity, the ability to allow huge ocean freighters to sail deep into China, and the curbing of the Yangtze's flooding were some of the immediate positive economic impacts the dam had for the country. However, the problems associated with its construction were widely reported. Over an estimated one million people were forced to relocate due to its construction and the resulting Three Gorges Reservoir Region that submerged their homes. Increased pollution resulted in the endangerment and extinction of several plant and animal species. The fishing industry was adversely affected as hundreds of species of fish were unable to spawn upstream, and the erosion of sedimentation resulted in increased numbers of landslides. Yet despite these effects and protests from environmental groups, China has continued to regard the Three Gorges Dam construction as a monumental success.

Bottle_rocket did the research on this question.

Answer: Indira Sagar

The Narmada River rises in the Amarkantak Plateau in eastern India and flows entirely through India to the Gulf of Khambhat in the Arabian Sea. The concrete gravity Indira Sagar dam is located about midway along the river with the huge reservoir located to the south and east of the dam. Much like the Three Gorges Dam, the Indira Sagar dam displaced many thousands of people, with an estimate of over 250 villages being submerged, and protests against the dam continued long after it was built whenever water levels were increased in the reservoir.

This question was the work of PDAZ.

Answer: Lake Mead

Lake Mead is located on the border between Nevada and Arizona, about thirty miles from Las Vegas. Besides providing water to California, Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico, the lake is also a recreation area for water sports and fishing. The lake was created when Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s, and it was named for Elwood Mead, who was the commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation during the building of the dam. Several small communities were abandoned and submerged when the lake was created, and when drought conditions reduce the level of the lake, some of these sites become visible. Also hidden in the lake is the wreckage of several planes, including a B-29 Superfortress that crashed in 1948.

PDAZ came up with this question.