How many people died during an unusual man made disaster on Lake Peigneur in 1980?
It was a 10-foot (3 m) deep freshwater body, popular with sportsmen, until an unusual man-made disaster on November 20, 1980 changed its structure and the surrounding land. Although there were no injuries and no human lives lost, three dogs were reported killed.
How deep is Lake Peigneur today because of the mistake in 1980?
10-foot-
It was a 10-foot-deep (3 m) freshwater body, popular with sportsmen, until an unusual man-made disaster on November 20, 1980 changed its structure and the surrounding land….
| Lake Peigneur | |
|---|---|
| Max. depth | 200 ft (61 m) |
| Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap |
What caused the Lake Peigneur disaster?
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.
Where did the water go when it left Lake Peigneur?
For a few days, Iberia Parish gets the whole Book of Revelation. 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 deep is the Avery Island salt mine?
Salt is mined only on one level, about 510 feet below Gulf level. Estimating the amount of salt that was taken from open quarry mining, together with records kept since the advent of subsurface mining, indicates that about 8 million tons of salt have been taken from Avery Island.
What lake drained into a salt mine?
Lake Peigneur
On Nov. 20, 1980, an oil rig in Lake Peigneur was doing exploratory drilling when they punctured the salt dome below Jefferson Island. The hole resulted in a massive sinkhole, which drained the lake and caused the Delcambre Canal to backflow into the hole.
What happened to the salt mine at Jefferson Island?
On Nov. 20, 1980, an oil rig in Lake Peigneur was doing exploratory drilling when they punctured the salt dome below Jefferson Island. The hole resulted in a massive sinkhole, which drained the lake and caused the Delcambre Canal to backflow into the hole.
What lake drained into salt mine?
Is Avery Island an actual island?
The island is approximately 2,200 acres in area and about three miles in diameter at its widest point. Avery Island is not an island in the traditional sense. Located a few miles inland from the nearest body of open water, it appears insular because of its conspicuous height and encirclement by wetlands.
What happened in the Lake Peigneur disaster and how this is related to landslides?
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.