Something that's more amazing to me is that I was there when it happened. I was staying about two miles away in a Holiday Inn and never knew it until I got back home and saw it on the news. I was down from Fort Worth, working for Gearhart Industries modifying some oilfield logging equipment at the Lafayette Office. There's a good chance if the disaster hadn't happened, Gearhart would have performed the logging operations for that Texico well.
Hydrocarbons, Oil and Gas tend to settle at the top of salt domes so it's very common to drill into the top of them. Believe it or not, a lot of West Texas wells are drilled into salt domes (not to mention the gulf coast). It's also common to mine salt domes by flushing the salt out. In a few cases, the salt hasn't been replaced with water to fill the void causing collapses. Butch From: Logan McNatt [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 3:32 PM To: Texas Cavers Subject: [Texascavers] Salt Dome drains Lake Peigneur, LA 1980 The most dramatic collapse of a salt dome--due to human error--occured at Lake Peigneur LA on Nov 20, 1980. Incredible film/video footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI (snip from Wikipedia) On November 20, 1980, when the disaster took place, the Diamond Crystal Salt Company <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill> operated the Jefferson Island salt mine <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_mine> under the lake, while a Texaco <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texaco> oil rig <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_platform> drilled down from the surface of the lake searching for petroleum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum> . Due to a miscalculation, the 14-inch (36 cm) drill bit entered the mine, starting a chain of events which turned an almost 10-foot (3.0 m) deep freshwater lake into a salt water lake with a deep hole. It is difficult to determine exactly what occurred, as all of the evidence was destroyed or washed away in the ensuing maelstrom <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom> . One explanation is that a miscalculation by Texaco regarding their location resulted in the drill puncturing the roof of the third level of the mine. This created an opening in the bottom of the lake. The lake then drained into the hole, expanding the size of that hole as the soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant whirlpool <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool> sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and 65 acres (260,000 m2) of the surrounding terrain. So much water drained into those caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delcambre_Canal> that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion_Bay_%28Louisiana%29> was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delcambre_Canal> and Vermilion Bay <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion_Bay_%28Louisiana%29> . The water downflowing into the mine caverns displaced air which erupted as compressed air and then later as 400-foot (120 m) geysers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geyser> up through the mineshafts.[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Peigneur#cite_note-h-4> There were no injuries and no human lives lost. All 55 employees in the mine at the time of the accident were able to escape thanks to well-planned and rehearsed evacuation drills, while the staff of the drilling rig fled the platform before it was sucked down into the new depths of the lake, and Leonce Viator, Jr. (a local fisherman) was able to drive his small boat to the shore and get out.[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Peigneur#cite_note-h-4> Three dogs were reported killed, however. Days after the disaster, once the water pressure equalized, nine of the eleven sunken barges <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barge> popped out of the whirlpool and refloated on the lake's surface.
