Lake Peigneur

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The Lake Peigneur is a lake in the state of Louisiana. It is located about two kilometers north of the town of Delcambre, 15 kilometers south of Lafayette.

History

The lake existed until the beginning of the eighties of fresh water and was than about 3 m deep water sports venue popular. On November 20, 1980 changed a drilling accident caused by Texaco, the lake and the surrounding area. The Lake Peigneur is now a 60 -meter-deep salt lake.

Course

Below the lake, there was a salt mine. Simultaneously drilled Texaco at the surface of the water for oil. Due to a miscalculation, the drill penetrated the salt mine and riddled the upper stratum of the third level of the mine. Similar to removing the plug in the bathtub, the water from the lake ran off into the hole and enlarged it constantly. The cavities were formed by the decomposition of the salt, were gradually filled by the water. The resulting vortex swallowed the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and a total of 260 000 m² surrounding terrain.

Overall, as much water ran so fast into the cavities of the salt dome, that the level of the lake absenkte so far that the direction of flow of the Delcambre Canal reversed and this now directed water from the Vermillion Bay in the hole in the lake. This reflux was formed for a few days the largest with about 50 m high waterfall Louisiana. The trapped air resulted in geysers at the output of the salt mine with height up to 120 m.

Follow

Through the misfortune no people were injured. Texaco and Wilson Brothers paid $ 32 million dollars as compensation to Diamond Crystal, the mining company. Furthermore, they agreed on a compensation of 12.8 million at Live Oak Gardens. In December 1986, the mine was closed. The company AGL Resources uses the salt dome of Lake Peigneur since 1994 as a store for gas with up to date ( October 2012 ) 212 million m3 working volume in two caverns, before being passed in pipelines.