Enormous new dam fails in Brazil 10 July 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. GIANT cracks have opened in one of the world's tallest dams, just months after completion. The cracks appeared after a tunnel collapsed on 20 June beneath the 200-metre-high Campos Novos dam in southern Brazil, and the reservoir rapidly emptied. At one point, 4000 cubic metres of water (more than enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool) were rushing downstream every second towards a second dam on the river Canoas. "If this had happened during the rainy season, and the two reservoirs had been full, water would...