The Lake Peigneur Disaster

In 1980, an oil drilling rig in Lake Peigneur, Louisiana, accidentally punctured a salt mine beneath the lake. Water began draining into the mine through the 14-inch borehole. Within hours, the whirlpool grew to enormous size, swallowing the drilling platform, eleven barges, a tugboat, trucks, trees, and an entire botanical garden. The lake—normally 10 feet deep—drained completely, creating a 1,300-foot deep crater. Remarkably, no one died. The 55 miners all evacuated safely, and the oil rig workers escaped. The disaster reversed the flow of a nearby canal, creating a 150-foot waterfall as the Gulf of Mexico rushed backward to fill the void. Nine of the eleven barges later resurfaced when the crater filled. The lake's ecosystem was permanently destroyed—it transformed from freshwater to saltwater. Lawsuits followed, with settlements in the millions. The incident demonstrates how small errors (the drill coordinates were wrong) can cascade into environmental catastrophes.