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Jake Weikert
posted four images with the comment:
Here’s an interesting one! A little off my usual topic but I was listening to a podcast about it.
Have you ever heard of Lake Peigneur?
Historically it was a sleepy 10’ deep freshwater lake popular with locals prior to November 1980.
But under the lake the Diamond Salt Company had been mining a salt dome since 1919, creating huge caverns of about 100’ x 80’ and multiple levels going down 1500’.
On November 20, 1980, a drill rig had been contracted by Texaco to drill for oil in the lake. What was supposed to be a straight bore hole didn’t end up as planned. 55 workers were working in the mine when the drill accidentally pierced the third level of the salt mine. What resulted was an epic engineering disaster!
All 55 workers escaped, but the water rushed in through the drill hole into the enormous cavities in the mine. Rapid erosion opened the hole into a massive sink and sucked the drill rig down into the mine! The resulting hole opened and created a vortex sucking everything down like a bathtub drain. Trees, 11 barges full of supplies, a tugboat, everything on the lake was pulled in!
The opening of the mine turned into a guyser for days and the canal that ran to the Gulf of Mexico was reversed, pulling in saltwater and creating for a time the largest waterfall in Louisiana at 164’!
After the lake levels stabilized, the new depth was over 200’ and permanently brackish.
There was no loss of life but Texaco was ordered to pay $32 million in damages…
Jake Weikert: Here is the Modern Marvels Engineering Disasters segment from 2003
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10:23 video @ 3:47, credit: Hadi Karimi
The Lake Peigneur Disaster: The Sinkhole that Swallowed a Lake |
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