The Lake Peigneur Giant Sinkhole Disaster 1980

november 20th 1980 is a new day at lake penuer in louisiana some nine miles north of the vermillion bay in the gulf of mexico a charming calm lake is a popular resort for fishermen and nature lovers the beauty of the lake is rounded off with a gorgeous botanical park on the lakes jefferson island however not everyone present at the lake is interested in its natural beauty an oil drilling platform in ownership of the wilson brothers corporation was recently brought to the lake hired by the famous texaco oil company wilson brothers were looking for oil beneath the lake lies a gigantic salt dome meaning there is probably oil somewhere near indeed the calculations have shown a substantial deposit of oil on the edges of the salt dome the wilson brothers were supposed to drill down to it their employees were experienced they had done the job many times before and knew all the trade secrets so once engineers gave them coordinates they threw themselves into the job drilling for oil is a challenging and dangerous job that can cause unpredictable consequences including severe accidents and today the workers are about to experience such a situation early in the morning at around 6 a.m the 14-inch drill gets stuck at a depth of about 1230 feet nothing too unusual for the workers on the platform they just need to get the drill loose and continue working however it seems that the drill won't come out no matter what they try suddenly the drill tilts forcefully followed by a couple of loud pops it is undoubtedly a situation that calls for an immediate evacuation of workers in a hurry they cut free the barges holding the platform and flee to the safe part of the lake they were right to evacuate as a platform overturns and begins to sink a couple of minutes later the entire platform disappears into the lake to the surprise of the workers and everyone around the oil drilling platform is a massive construction and the lake is just 10 feet deep there is no way it can swallow the entire thing still disoriented and shocked by what they've seen workers notice their boat is being pulled back to the platform's location not quite sure what is going on the skipper pushes the throttle and takes the boat and the workers to the safety of the lakeshore the sunken platform turns out to be just an introduction to an event of cataclysmic proportions a giant whirlpool forms at the spot where the platform used to be sucking in nearby barges and boats soil from the jefferson island trucks trees buildings and even a parking lot near the botanical garden are sucked into the giant vortex the del cambrie canal that takes the water from lake penier to the gulf of mexico reverses its flow under the influence of the whirlpool people around the lake are stunned by what they witness to many of them it seemed like the bowels of the earth opened and the end of the world is coming the exaggerated impression the people got that day as they watched the entire leg disappear in front of their eyes was not far from reality the ground did open and all the water from the lake went into it what they didn't know was that under their feet another drama was going on below the lake lies a colossal salt dome a vertical mass of salt that intrudes into upper layers of earth from underlying salt beds due to the weight of the overlying rock in the united states salt domes are frequent especially along the gulf of mexico coastline most of them in texas and louisiana all of them are exploited for salt mining inside the salt dome beneath lake piner was a four level salt mine reaching depths of 1500 feet under the ownership of the diamond crystal salt company the mine was opened in 1919 and was extracting halite minerals better known as rock salt for six decades incessantly the initial mining was conducted on the topmost level at a depth of 800 feet over time the primary salt production moved deeper with three new levels opened at depths of one thousand thirteen hundred and fifteen hundred feet each level consisted of large tunnels up to one hundred feet high and wide the tunnel on the bottom-most level was 100 feet wide and 80 feet tall each of these tunnels was created through the process of mining inside them vast pillars of salt were left untouched to support the tunnel sealing like oil drilling mining has its own risks a record of mining related accidents is rather long and includes a whole palette of dangers from ceiling collapses to outbursts of explosive gases trapped in underground pockets in salt mines miners pay special attention to the stability of their tunnels because the entire structure lies on pillars made of the same material they are digging out the presence of the water is especially hazardous which could easily dissolve the salt pillars and leave the tunnel ceiling without support the jefferson island mined at lake piner had a couple of water leak incidents in the mid-1970s but none threatened its stability the bigger problem was the instability of the entire mine above the 1300 feet level due to the change in the dimension of narrow pillars on the upper floor due to prolonged stress the surface in the tunnels was subsiding 10 inches per year on november 20th 1980 the day of the accident 55 miners descended to the bottom two levels at 1300 feet and 1500 feet below ground the shift began as usual using the electric shovel they mined the rock salt then transported it to the surface in small mining carts however the job was disrupted by an unusual sound coming from down the tunnel electrician junius gadison went to check to his amazement the strange sound was coming from fuel drums banging against each other as they were carried down the tunnel by a knee-deep stream of muddy water he knew about a history of water leakage in the mine but a torrent of water was a clear signal that something was wrong not wasting time gaddison called for an alarm three short flashes of mine light signaled everyone inside to leave the mine as quickly as possible the problem was that the elevator to the surface was slow and was designed to carry only eight people moreover many miners working on the bottom most fourth level had their passage blocked by water they had to go a long way toward it using mine cards despite the fact that the elevator took a long time to reach the surface the miners kept their composure they calmly waited for their turn to get to the safety of the surface during that time maintenance foreman randy lasalle searched the mine tunnels for workers who might have missed the signal to evacuate as quickly as possible in a race against time and water miraculously all 55 miners reached safety the key to successful evacuation was that all the employees were well trained for such situations once on the surface the miners were shocked by what they saw the lake and everything on it was disappearing into a whirlpool it suddenly became clear what had happened the oil drill got stuck because it penetrated the mine ceiling at the 1300 foot level doing so created a funnel that allowed the water from lake penuer to leak into the mine the water dissolved the rock salt around the drill as it flowed down creating a larger and larger funnel once mass amounts of water reached the mine they began dissolving the salt pillars and caused the entire mine construction and everything above it to collapse in just three hours the giant hole in the ground took all 3.5 billion gallons of water from the lake into the mine on top of that the force of the whirlpool was so strong that it drew the water from the del cambry canal dragging along 11 barges from it a crew on an anchored tugboat struggled to hold their vessel against the current but eventually abandoned it before a swirling vortex swallowed it it was a horrifying image where once a lake was there was now a gigantic hole the cataclysmic image was complemented by a 400 foot tall geyser spraying water and debris into the air because the water was flowing into the mine faster than the air could get out the air was compressed and burst out through the mine's air shaft the water coming from the gulf of mexico began to fill the hole through the del cambry canal creating a temporary 150-foot tall waterfall the largest in louisiana for the first and only time in history water in the del cambre canal flowed northwards it took 40 hours to refill the lake and once it was filled and the water pressure equalized nine sunken barges popped out to the surface unfortunately the rest of the barges a drilling platform a tugboat trucks and other things remain trapped in the ruins of the mine luckily no lives were lost in this unusual accident there was only severe material damage the lake suffered a significant change though as it was now filled with brackish water instead of fresh water it was no longer 10 feet deep it had now become the divas lake in louisiana at 200 feet it was a drastic change in the lake's biology in the years to follow many new species of fish and plants appeared in the lake it was a whole new ecosystem that had to be adapted to however a question remained how was it possible that the people in charge of drilling were not aware they were drilling directly above the salt mine the official report on the disaster released by the mine safety and health administration of the united states department of labor in august 1981 failed to explain it all of the documents regarding the drilling sunk along with the drilling platform even though there is a chance that the drill may have deflected toward the mine it's most probable that the engineers in charge of the drilling made a miscalculation and placed the drill right above the mine for the same reason of the lack of original documents one can only guess who was responsible for the miscalculation there is a possibility that texaco engineers made the wrong trigonometrical calculation still there is also a chance that the mine management provided them with faulty maps of the mine tunnels either way in out-of-court settlements with the diamond crystal salt company and the live oak gardens texaco and the wilson brothers corporation agreed to compensate those affected by the damage the mine owners were paid 32 million dollars in compensation for the mine lost while the botanical gardens was paid 12.8 million dollars as a result of the disaster the jefferson island mine was officially closed in december of 1986. the settlement ended one of the most bizarre disasters in human history the story of the lake pineur drilling accident is an astonishing record of how a small human error can produce a colossal and irreversible natural disaster watch this episode next if you found this video interesting please add a like and leave a comment if you want to support the channel

Channel: Dark Records

Views: 4,433,570

Keywords: accident documentary, dark history, disaster, disaster documentary, disasters, documentary, fascinating horror, history documentary, history's greatest disasters, plainly difficult, seconds from disaster, theme park accident, worst accidents, lake peigneur drilling accident, lake peigneur salt mine drilling accident, lake peignour

Id: PcWRO2pyLA8

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Wed May 25 2022