1980 – Lake Completely Drains After Drilling Accident

OneMansBlog

by JOHN P.

In 1980 Texaco was doing exploratory drilling for oil in Lake Peigneur, a shallow man-made lake near New Iberia, LA. Although many of the facts from that day are lost, what we do know is that someone miscalculated and drilled right through the lake and into a salt mine below.

It’s generally accepted that the drill punctured the roof of the third level of the mine. This created an opening in the bottom of the lake, similar to removing the drain plug from a bathtub. The lake then drained into the hole, expanding the size of that hole as the soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years.

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