September 19, 2006

You drilled into WHAT? Lake Peigneur, Louisianna, 1980: A drilling rig in the middle of a lake drills a hole 1500 feet down into a salt mine. "Hilarity" ensues. (youtube)
  • Hmm they probably should have double checked first hey.
  • "I SAID I THINK THERE'S A SALT MINE UNDER HERE!! A SALT MINE!! A SAL-uh oh"
  • The entire concept is so awesome as to defy workaday awesomeness. "Dude! KEEP DRILLING!! Aim for the salt mine, and we will friggin DRAIN THIS MUTHA OUT!! Woooo!"
  • Mord does not want to be sucked into the bathtub drain of doom!
  • wow, that was impressive. it could be an excellent dive site now though.
  • Damn Interesting article on Lake Peigneur.
  • I'd heard of this, but I'd never seen any video. Most impressive! I wonder what the guys on the drilling platform thought. "oops?"
  • "Oops. This is going to suck, Big Time!"
  • See, that's why you should always call before you dig.
  • I'd heard of this, but I'd never seen any video. Me, too. I can't watch this at work but am very interested to see it when I get home.
  • Within two days, what had previously been an eleven-foot-deep freshwater body was replaced with a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater lake. The lake's biology was changed drastically, and it became home to many species of plants and fish which had not been there previously. Nice focus on the positive there. No tiresome mention of any massive deaths of freshwater species.
  • But if they hadn't awesomely drained the lake, those saltwater plants and fish might have never been born!
  • I wonder what the guys on the drilling platform thought 'How far away am I going to have to move?'
  • HAhahaha, wow, amusement.
  • what most amazes me is how, once you remove the commercials and endless repetitions, these 'in-depth' programs from the history channel boil down to less than 6 minutes...
  • Good thing it wasn't a potassium mine.
  • Possum mine?
  • I guess the water would get hotter if it was KCl instead of NaCl. But its not like there's elemental potassium down there to blow up. Be glad it wasn't an alien nuclear waste dump, is my take on it. Seriously, could provoke a cold-water runaway and steam explosion!
  • very interesting, thanks for the post. I'm amazed that I didn't remember this, seems like it would have made the news.....
  • What surprises me is that I had never heard about this until a couple of years ago, even though I was 17 when this happened and was pretty news-conscious at that ago.
  • er..age
  • Is this where I get to ask...? What is that giant sucking sound?
  • Sorry, GramMa, I was playing guitar.
  • Wait, how did the salt water fish get there? Walk?
  • Be glad it wasn't a graveyard. They'd've had Craig T. Nelson running around screaming, "WHY?!?"
  • Flying fish?? D-man, did they get sucked in from the ocean via the canal?* *too lazy to look it up on a map
  • GramMa: yup. And there was 150 ft. waterfall. For a little while.
  • Don't f*ck with Mother Nature. She don' lake it.