Last month, news about the disappearance of a glacial lake in Chilean Patagonia spread around the media outlets and geoblogosphere. A lot of the discussion since has been focused on whether or not this event is indeed just the latest example of anthropogenic global warming.
This reminded me of a story of a disappearing lake that is without a doubt the result of human intervention. This is crazy…check it out. In 1980, Lake Peigneur in Louisiana catastrophically drained into the ground creating a swirling vortex that sucked barges and other boats into it.
The short version is: they drilled an oil well into an active salt mine. When the drill hole met the subsurface cavity….well, watch this History Channel footage (~6 min) below. They go into much more detail and have some incredible footage.
If the embedded link is broken, go here
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Holy crap. I can’t believe that no one was killed. Makes me feel better about things I’ve broken in the lab.