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List of largest dams

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ8216428 ↗
Source-derived summary

The following table lists the largest man-made dams by volume of fill/structure. A dam is generally defined as a barrier that impounds water or underground flows, so tailings dams are relegated to a separate list. Data on volume of structure is not as readily available or reliable as data on dam height and reservoir volume.

Type: TE - Earth; ER - Rock-fill; PG - Concrete gravity; CFRD - Concrete face rockfill

List of largest tailings dams

Type: TE - Earth; ER - Rock-fill; PG - Concrete gravity; CFRD - Concrete face rockfill.

Editorial summary

“List of largest dams” enters the record as wikimedia list article. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, largest and dams can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 92-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, largest and dams.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of largest dams” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, largest and dams provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8216428. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow List of largest dams primary sources, List of largest dams archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of largest dams” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.