32 ms·

Lake Peigneur: The Swirling Vortex of Doom (2005)

135 points by belatw 5y ago

mattowen_uk 5y ago
I found this picture[1] via http://www.sketchyscience.com/2015/05/sinkholes-natures-most-awful-trick.html http://www.sketchyscience.com/2015/05/sinkholes-natures-most... which shows visually what actually happened with the drill. -- [1] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Q5XY2Gkwns/VVK8dT2pPSI/AAAAAAAACG0/Dj3Ptr8yJIs/s1600/6_-_Mistakes_were_Made_Today%5B1%5D.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Q5XY2Gkwns/VVK8dT2pPSI/AAAAAAAACG...
smcl 5y ago
If you want a bit more of an in-depth, audio depiction of this incident then check out the Well There's Your Problem episode on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKU0zu6KB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKU0zu6KB8 It's a podcast about engineering disasters (with slides) that I enjoy and share whenever I can :D
- q_andrew 5y ago
  This is my go-to podcast for background noise at work. I recommend their episode on Gulf State vanity projects, it's my favorite one (it is also quite long).
  - smcl 5y ago
    They've joked a couple of times that Seamus Malekafzali won't come back after the length of that one :D Update: oof yeah I just checked again now - 3 hours 4 minutes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW6lg-7L7yk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW6lg-7L7yk).
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
I’m dumbfounded that Texaco thought drilling there was a good idea.
- gameswithgo 5y ago
  It is a weird industry man, ceos of the big companies often talk about God and morals a lot but their actual behavior is reckless and greedy. See the decades of knowingly lying about climate change as well. Source: I worked for a big oil company
  - taneq 5y ago
    I don’t want anyone who talks about God a lot running a big company, I want someone who takes responsibility for outcomes themselves.
    - vkou 5y ago
      1. What you want doesn't really matter, since you and I don't get to vote on company directorships. 2. You would want God on your side[1], if you're going to operate a controversial[2] business in his country. [1] Or at least claim loudly and frequently that he's on your side. [2] Resource extraction, even in resource-economy regions is always controversial, because of its impact on neighbouring properties. And when your business is controversial, having the clergy on your side can't hurt.
- mannykannot 5y ago
  And now: Since 1994, AGL Resources has used Lake Peigneur's underlying salt dome as a storage and hub facility for pressurized natural gas. There was concern from local residents in 2009 over the safety of storing the gas under the lake and nearby drilling operations. - Wikipedia. I can understand the residents' concerns!
  - beerandt 5y ago
    The over-mining and removal of the salt is what leads to potential geological instability, not using the already excavated space for gas storage.
    - mannykannot 5y ago
Gravityloss 5y ago
When your company consists of a bunch of interlinked services...
Severian 5y ago
History channel video about it. Shares some other details and first hand accounts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc
mannykannot 5y ago
The Mine Safety and Health Administration produced a report [1] with an inconclusive "Possible Causes" section. One thing I noticed there is that "the plotted location of the drill hole fell just within a mined-out section." I wonder if the drillers were using a map showing only the active galleries, though I would imagine that would have been mentioned if it came to light. There are detailed maps and drawings of the mine works in this report. Also, there is a diagram [2] to be found in several places, apparently from Keller & Blodgett "Natural Hazards" (Prentice Hall.) [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=EbjC-q99VHAC https://books.google.com/books?id=EbjC-q99VHAC [2] http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Sink_holes/peigneur3.jpg http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Sink_holes...
- kodah 5y ago
  If you watch the video linked in another comment, one of the folks interviewed says they used a form of triangulation that displaced them 400 meters, but all that evidence is gone.
moioci 5y ago
There is some amazing video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc
cyberfart 5y ago
Today I Found Out has an episode on it too [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/CPERnfB-q3o https://youtu.be/CPERnfB-q3o
- DamnInteresting 5y ago
  Author of the original Damn Interesting article here. This Today I Found Out (TIFO) video is problematic, because the host of TIFO (Simon Whistler) used to be part of Damn Interesting, he was the narrator for our audiobook and some of our early podcast episodes. Our Lake Peigneur article, the one this HN thread is based upon, was one that he recorded for us. Simon joined TIFO without informing us, while still working as our narrator. And TIFO had long been poaching our articles, lazily rewriting our work and calling it their own. So you can imagine my dismay when I found out that our paid narrator was also being paid by a competing website to read our slightly reworked content. This Lake Peigneur video is a particularly egregious example. Their script is extremely similar to our original article in structure and phrasing. That alone would be bad enough, but for the video's host to be a former member of Damn Interesting makes it feel really awful. This isn't the first of our articles they have reworked into a video without our permission, and I doubt it will be the last. I'm not claiming they are breaking any laws, but what they are doing is gross and parasitic.
  - suethemthen 5y ago
    If you have a real, actionable, complaint against these people you should take action through the legal system. Complaining in a random comment on Hacker News where the accused isn't present to defend themselves comes off as incredibly petty, and hearsay at that, because there's no way to verify your complaints. Why do companies, like you, think HN is an appropriate venue for airing these kinds of grievances? If you think he stole your IP, sue him. If you don't, but you still feel wronged, you need to write better licensing and employment contracts. You know what whining on HN does? It makes potential readers like me remember that you run a petty organization that seeks extralegal justice when it fails to protect its IP. You're equally pathetic. That's all I'm going to remember when I see your brand from now on. Great comment.
beerandt 5y ago
>So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, causing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to flow into what was now a dry lakebed. This backflow created for a few days the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 ft (50 m), as the lake refilled with salty water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.

135 points by belatw 5y ago

I found this picture[1] via http://www.sketchyscience.com/2015/05/sinkholes-natures-most-awful-trick.html http://www.sketchyscience.com/2015/05/sinkholes-natures-most... which shows visually what actually happened with the drill. -- [1] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Q5XY2Gkwns/VVK8dT2pPSI/AAAAAAAACG0/Dj3Ptr8yJIs/s1600/6_-_Mistakes_were_Made_Today%5B1%5D.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Q5XY2Gkwns/VVK8dT2pPSI/AAAAAAAACG...

smcl 5y ago

If you want a bit more of an in-depth, audio depiction of this incident then check out the Well There's Your Problem episode on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKU0zu6KB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKU0zu6KB8 It's a podcast about engineering disasters (with slides) that I enjoy and share whenever I can :D

q_andrew 5y ago
This is my go-to podcast for background noise at work. I recommend their episode on Gulf State vanity projects, it's my favorite one (it is also quite long).
- smcl 5y ago
  They've joked a couple of times that Seamus Malekafzali won't come back after the length of that one :D Update: oof yeah I just checked again now - 3 hours 4 minutes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW6lg-7L7yk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW6lg-7L7yk).

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

I’m dumbfounded that Texaco thought drilling there was a good idea.

gameswithgo 5y ago
It is a weird industry man, ceos of the big companies often talk about God and morals a lot but their actual behavior is reckless and greedy. See the decades of knowingly lying about climate change as well. Source: I worked for a big oil company
- taneq 5y ago
  I don’t want anyone who talks about God a lot running a big company, I want someone who takes responsibility for outcomes themselves.
  - vkou 5y ago
    1. What you want doesn't really matter, since you and I don't get to vote on company directorships. 2. You would want God on your side[1], if you're going to operate a controversial[2] business in his country. [1] Or at least claim loudly and frequently that he's on your side. [2] Resource extraction, even in resource-economy regions is always controversial, because of its impact on neighbouring properties. And when your business is controversial, having the clergy on your side can't hurt.
mannykannot 5y ago
And now: Since 1994, AGL Resources has used Lake Peigneur's underlying salt dome as a storage and hub facility for pressurized natural gas. There was concern from local residents in 2009 over the safety of storing the gas under the lake and nearby drilling operations. - Wikipedia. I can understand the residents' concerns!
- beerandt 5y ago
  The over-mining and removal of the salt is what leads to potential geological instability, not using the already excavated space for gas storage.
  - mannykannot 5y ago

Gravityloss 5y ago

When your company consists of a bunch of interlinked services...

Severian 5y ago

History channel video about it. Shares some other details and first hand accounts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc

mannykannot 5y ago

The Mine Safety and Health Administration produced a report [1] with an inconclusive "Possible Causes" section. One thing I noticed there is that "the plotted location of the drill hole fell just within a mined-out section." I wonder if the drillers were using a map showing only the active galleries, though I would imagine that would have been mentioned if it came to light. There are detailed maps and drawings of the mine works in this report. Also, there is a diagram [2] to be found in several places, apparently from Keller & Blodgett "Natural Hazards" (Prentice Hall.) [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=EbjC-q99VHAC https://books.google.com/books?id=EbjC-q99VHAC [2] http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Sink_holes/peigneur3.jpg http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Sink_holes...

kodah 5y ago
If you watch the video linked in another comment, one of the folks interviewed says they used a form of triangulation that displaced them 400 meters, but all that evidence is gone.

moioci 5y ago

There is some amazing video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc

cyberfart 5y ago

Today I Found Out has an episode on it too [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/CPERnfB-q3o https://youtu.be/CPERnfB-q3o

DamnInteresting 5y ago
Author of the original Damn Interesting article here. This Today I Found Out (TIFO) video is problematic, because the host of TIFO (Simon Whistler) used to be part of Damn Interesting, he was the narrator for our audiobook and some of our early podcast episodes. Our Lake Peigneur article, the one this HN thread is based upon, was one that he recorded for us. Simon joined TIFO without informing us, while still working as our narrator. And TIFO had long been poaching our articles, lazily rewriting our work and calling it their own. So you can imagine my dismay when I found out that our paid narrator was also being paid by a competing website to read our slightly reworked content. This Lake Peigneur video is a particularly egregious example. Their script is extremely similar to our original article in structure and phrasing. That alone would be bad enough, but for the video's host to be a former member of Damn Interesting makes it feel really awful. This isn't the first of our articles they have reworked into a video without our permission, and I doubt it will be the last. I'm not claiming they are breaking any laws, but what they are doing is gross and parasitic.
- suethemthen 5y ago
  If you have a real, actionable, complaint against these people you should take action through the legal system. Complaining in a random comment on Hacker News where the accused isn't present to defend themselves comes off as incredibly petty, and hearsay at that, because there's no way to verify your complaints. Why do companies, like you, think HN is an appropriate venue for airing these kinds of grievances? If you think he stole your IP, sue him. If you don't, but you still feel wronged, you need to write better licensing and employment contracts. You know what whining on HN does? It makes potential readers like me remember that you run a petty organization that seeks extralegal justice when it fails to protect its IP. You're equally pathetic. That's all I'm going to remember when I see your brand from now on. Great comment.

beerandt 5y ago

>So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, causing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to flow into what was now a dry lakebed. This backflow created for a few days the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 ft (50 m), as the lake refilled with salty water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.