What caused Lake Peigneur drilling accident?
What caused Lake Peigneur drilling accident?
On November 20, 1980, a normal day on the Lake Peigneur was abruptly interrupted by the tremors of a 14-inch Texaco drill bit which made a catastrophic error due to a misread map that misplaced the exploratory drilling operation. Instead of striking black oil, they hit white salt.
What happened in the Lake Peigneur disaster and how this is related to landslides?
A little too far down. The mistake drained the entire lake like a bathtub, creating an enormous whirlpool that consumed barges, drills, and 65 acres of land. As the hole into the mine widened, the vortex accelerated and created massive landslides, pulling anything and everything into its maw.
What is the deepest lake in Louisiana?
Lake Peigneur
Lake Peigneur is a small saltwater lake near the Vermilion Bay in south Louisiana. The lake has a maximum depth of 200 feet and is the deepest lake in Louisiana. This size is amazing considering 40 years ago it was a 10-foot-deep freshwater lake.
How many workers in the salt mine died from the 1980 Lake Peigneur drilling accident?
Although no human lives were lost, three dogs were reported killed. All 55 employees in the mine at the time of the accident escaped, with six employees later given awards by Diamond Crystal for heroism. The crew of 7 on the drilling rig fled the platform shortly before it collapsed into the new depths of the lake.
How Louisiana’s Lake peigneur became 200 feet deep in an instant?
On the morning of November 21, 1980, a Texaco oil rig team on Louisiana’s Lake Peigneur noticed that their drill had seized up below the surface of the shallow lake. They had managed to permanently transform a 10-foot-deep freshwater lake into a 200-foot-deep saltwater one.
Where did the water go when it left Lake peigneur?
Lake Peigneur used to drain into Vermilion Bay via the Delcambre Canal, but once the lake had emptied into the mine, the canal changed direction and salt water from the Gulf of Mexico flooded into the muddy lake bed.
How did the Lake Peigneur mine disaster happen?
Lake water was now rushing into the mine through the rapidly expanding 14-inch hole in the salt dome, with a force ten times that of a fire hydrant. The rig crew had been drilling a test well into deposits alongside a salt dome under Lake Peigneur.
Why was the water in Lake Peigneur so salty?
The lake had salty water after the event, not as a result of salt from the mine dissolving into the water, but from the inflow of salty water from the Vermilion Bay.
How did Lake Peigneur drain into Vermilion Bay?
Lake Peigneur used to drain into Vermilion Bay via the Delcambre Canal, but when the lake was emptied into the mine, the canal changed direction and salty or brackish water from the Gulf of Mexico flooded into the muddy lake bed.
How big was the waterfall in Lake Peigneur?
A real apocalyptic event! The backwards flow of the normally outflowing Delcambre Canal temporarily created the biggest waterfall in Louisiana at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.
