[3][4] A similar lake in the same province formed 222 years earlier caused one of the worst landslide-related disasters in history.

On June 10, 1786, a landslide dam on Sichuan's Dadu River, created by an earthquake ten days earlier, burst and caused a flood that extended 1400 km downstream and killed 100,000 people.

[5] A "relatively strong" aftershock on June 8, 2008, shook the massive earthquake-formed lake that has been threatening to flood more than 1 million people and triggered landslides in surrounding mountains.

Soldiers used digging equipment, explosives, and even missiles to blast channels in the dam in an attempt to relieve the pressure behind it.

[7] The muddy waters flowed rapidly downstream causing flooding in the evacuated town of Beichuan and overtopping of dams.