They say if you stare into the abyss , the abysm star back at you . Visitors to Napa County , California , can put that possibility to the test because – sound news ! – Lake Berryessa ’s glory hole is back in legal action .
That ’s the Morning Glory Spillway , to be precise : a massive , swirling drainpipe at Monticello Dam design to prevent flooding when Lake Berryessa ’s water levels exceed 134 meter ( 440 feet ) . When that materialise , the overflow spills into the drain , creating a sloshing vortex that looks very cool whenviewed from above .
So , why call it a glory maw ?
“ My guess is because there ’s a big hole and so people have chosen to utilize other terms , ” Melissa Vignau toldABC10 , “ but the official full term is the Morning Glory Spillway . ”
Vignau is a supervisor for the Solano Project , a federally fund platform with the Bureau of Reclamation that supplies urine for human manipulation via Monticello Dam . dam involve emergency spillways to treat excess water , and in this case , the glory hole functions like an overflow waste pipe in a kitchen sink , just on a monumental graduated table .
harmonise to theLA Times , the glory hole has only been used 25 times in its 70 - year story . It had been sitting dry and idle for twelvemonth , but at the start of 2025 , a slew ofatmospheric riversbrought alarge amount of rainfallto the region .
At last , the aura maw was back in activity .
AsLake Berryessa Newsreports , the jam first spill on February 4 and saw the most action on – of all days – Valentine ’s Day , when water stratum rose to 135.02 meters ( 442.97 feet ) . We ’ve enjoyed 46 glory hole day this yr , and as of March 22 , the levels had once again risen to 134.4 meters ( 441 feet ) following a band of rain in the last few days .
As you could see from the above monotone footage , flow into the glory hole is rather peaceable , but it ’s a very different story deep inside the halo mess . The water plummets 61 meters ( 200 feet ) before rush out into the Putah Creek below . Not a 24-hour interval you need to be catch up there without a paddle .
Lake Berryessa is nestled within the crack of a canyon , which is why it needed its own glory hole . Most dam utilize flat , undefended terrain to control flood with all-encompassing spill or controlled gates that pass redundant water , but space is specify when you ’re force in a canyon . or else , railroad engineer created a drain that could utilise a tunnel they ’d already build for rerouting the Putah Creek during the dam ’s building .
cunning human technology meets our coinage ’ penchant forgiving farcical gens to serious things ? Now that ’s my kind of science news report .
