Nobody’s ever encountered anything like this in the history of mankind.

Link to article

Lots of new activity at mysterious Louisiana sinkhole in Bayou Corne. Assumption Parish Police Jury blog reported abundant surface water movement and burp event in the center of the sinkhole starting early on July 19, 2013. Video bellow, released on the same day shows sudden water movement at sinkhole area with tidal wave characteristics.



The burp event on the surface of the sinkhole on July 14, 2013 occurred after debris and hydrocarbons located deep underground work their way upward and escape through the sinkhole into the atmosphere.



John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness stated the deepest part of the 22-acre sinkhole near the Bayou Corne Community is at least 500 feet (150 meters) deep. That is far more than previous estimated depth of 110 to 220 feet  (35 to 70 meters) deep measured by Texas Brine. The most recent sonar test on June 7, 2013 found the depth of the sinkhole to be 140 feet (43 meters) deep. According to experts, the depths change because the sediment in the sinkhole is constantly shifting and changing.

Similar event occurred in April 2013 when tidal waves were observed at the surface of the sinkhole.

The burps are occurring about once a month now. Experts estimate over 200 million cubic feet of gas in area under giant Louisiana sinkhole. A massive methane deposit could take years to drain.

At Assumption Parish public briefing held on July 16, 2013 Gary Hecox, CB&I hydrogeologist stressed that they have talked to some of the leading experts in the world as too what could be causing the problem. Here is his short statement from the briefing:

Quote :

"Nobody’s ever encountered anything like this in the history of mankind. I’m not kidding, what’s going on with that cavern where it’s going up several hundred feet and down several hundred feet, we don’t know if it’s some equipment issues or if there’s something going on in the cavern that we don’t understand. The pressure in the cavern continues to slowly increase. It’s up now to almost 600psi in the wellhead, that’s brine pressure not gas. I don’t even have a good hypothesis to tell you. The world experts have looked at this and we don’t know."

I perused this in depth when you first posted it, but I forgot to respond.

So it's burping methane gas, basically? And what is "brine pressure?" (I'm going to go google that.) Could this be some new type of volcano?

Melissa (PB) wrote:

I perused this in depth when you first posted it, but I forgot to respond.

So it's burping methane gas, basically? And what is "brine pressure?" (I'm going to go google that.) Could this be some new type of volcano?

My guess is that it is methane escaping into the salt dome which is below the bayou... causing pressure to build up.

And, just like a geyser where water sinks into the ground, contacts volcanic heat and turns to steam, and gets expelled back out the top, the bayou water gets pushed back out by methane pressure... just not as violently as a geyser.

Anyway, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Sounds like a good theory to me.

Here's an interesting aside from Wiki regarding salt domes:

"Major occurrences of salt domes are found along the Gulf Coast of the USA in Texas and Louisiana.[4] One example of an island formed by a salt dome is Avery Island in Louisiana. At present ocean levels it is no longer surrounded by the sea but it is surrounded by bayous on all sides."