The growth of ore treatment rates during the last decades requires to increase the capacity of tailings
impoundments. Consequently, the height and volume of the designed sand dams are reaching unprecedented dimensions due to environmental restrictions, tailing transport, occupied areas, etc. Centerline method appear as an alternative to reduce basal area of sand dam without affecting the global stability and storage capacity.

In order to evaluate the differences between centerline and downstream dam seismic behavior, this article presents a numerical modelling of high tailings dams under strong seismic events using 2D finite difference analysis.