editor Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 This is more "pines" than "woodlands" but either way, it's fascinating for a lot of people. This has been getting more press nationally than the polygamy cult or anything else out of Texas these days. I found some more: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 LOL! I was like WTH, is that om nom nom nom, then I realized that is Cookie Monster speak ! Now I can go on with my day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody_hawkeye Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 LOL! I was like WTH, is that om nom nom nom, then I realized that is Cookie Monster speak ! Now I can go on with my day.Rumor has it that under this area is a salt dome and the cavities were a product of past oil production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 (edited) Not a rumor, that would be the most likely event, and I was actually discussing that with my wife last night. Most likely, an empty saltdome after all the oil had been pumped out. Notice the lake over to the top of the pic. I would say that water eventually seeped over into the saltdome, collapsing the walls and BAM ! You have a sinkhole, that is now stopped. There is probably a few more of these potential dangers in the area. Edited May 12, 2008 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Not a rumor, that would be the most likely event, and I was actually discussing that with my wife last night. Most likely, an empty saltdome after all the oil had been pumped out. Notice the lake over to the top of the pic. I would say that water eventually seeped over into the saltdome, collapsing the walls and BAM ! You have a sinkhole, that is now stopped. There is probably a few more of these potential dangers in the area.I heard a story about this happenning in Louisiana back in the late 50's or early 60's. The cavity was so large that it sucked water in from Vermillion Bay making the tides run backwards for awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDeb Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 I heard a story about this happenning in Louisiana back in the late 50's or early 60's. The cavity was so large that it sucked water in from Vermillion Bay making the tides run backwards for awhile.You are referring to the Lake Peigneur incident in 1980, which wasn't a sinkhole like Daisetta.There was a salt mine under the lake, which Texaco happened to be drilling on. The underlying cause was never discovered, but apparently Texaco personnel made a miscalculation and drilled right into the salt mine. The lake subsequently drained into the salt mine, reversing the flow of the Delcambre Canal and causing Vermilion Bay to flow into the lake.Amazingly, no one on the Texaco barges or in the salt mine was killed. There were over fifty people in the mine at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20thStDad Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 The LA incident was way crazier. The hole created a whirlpool in the lake that sucked down the entire rig and barges. http://www.youtube.com/?v=Y4Of8cm0kS8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Funny captions. Haven't there been sink hole problems in that area before? There must be a number of salt dome in the vicinity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 I was actually discussing that with my wife last night.You must have an exciting marriage, TJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 You are referring to the Lake Peigneur incident in 1980, which wasn't a sinkhole like Daisetta.I saw an excellent "Engineering Disasters" on the History Channel about that. They had an eyewitness who was fishing on the lake when it happened. He saw the vortex and barely made it to shore, just as the shore started to fall into the massive hole it created. Amazing story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 (edited) You must have an exciting marriage, TJ. LOL! (smacks Red in the back of the head) We were watching the news, and how the reporter was acting soooooooo scared like THEY were about to be sucked into the crater. That is what sparked the conversation. The excitement started AFTER the news !!! Edited May 12, 2008 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pestofan Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Shouldn't this be in the Crater Houston Alliance section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Shouldn't this be in the Crater Houston Alliance section?No. That's a hole other section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 (edited) ^^^.....and I was worried about the effect of rap music "dumbing down" our youth ? Meme, looks like we got bigger fish to fry over here !^^^ Edited May 13, 2008 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonmacbro Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 So we now know the company was doing some weird underground stuff, but do these things ever just occur naturally? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 (edited) So we now know the company was doing some weird underground stuff, but do these things ever just occur naturally?Yes, ALL the time, the one over off of Almeda a few years ago is a good example. Saltdomes are natural, it is what's left over after the oil is pumped out. Water seeping for years and eroding away the earth under a road or plot of land will eventually start to cave under the weight of the remaining earth on top. Edited May 15, 2008 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonmacbro Posted May 14, 2008 Share Posted May 14, 2008 Yes, ALL the time, the one over off of Almeda a few years ago is a good example. Saltdomes are natural, it is what's left over after the oil is pumped out. Water seeping fro years and eroding away the earth under a road or plot of land will eventually start to cave under the weight of the remaining earth on top.Where on Almeda? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted May 14, 2008 Share Posted May 14, 2008 Yes, ALL the time, the one over off of Almeda a few years ago is a good example. Saltdomes are natural, it is what's left over after the oil is pumped out. Water seeping fro years and eroding away the earth under a road or plot of land will eventually start to cave under the weight of the remaining earth on top.IIRC, the Almeda sinkhole was caused by a leaking water or sewer pipe washing out the subsoil until the roadway and parking lot caved in. I do not think it was a natural formation such as a saltdome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted May 14, 2008 Share Posted May 14, 2008 So we now know the company was doing some weird underground stuff, but do these things ever just occur naturally?I take it you've never been to central Florida? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverJK Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 There are several natural sinkholes or "senotes" in Mexico. They are pretty cool because the ground is rock and creates caverns and etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark F. Barnes Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 Let's fine tune these explanations a little better before it gets too far out of hand. Salt Domes are NOT filled with Oil. Salt domes are general solid salt. This not exactly table salt like you may think, it's solid Halite structures and small amounts Anhydrite in them, but are generally solid salt, just un-refined. It's very zebra striped looking if you look at a vertical cross section of it, because it's layered with black and white Halite. Oil companies don't drill into salt domes seeking oil reserves, the reservoirs are generally draped around the dome on the edges. If anything we avoid the domes because of the presence of abnormal geo-pressures in relation to the domes. Salt domes are naturally formed during the tectonic phases in geologic time. Salt domes or "diapirs", are generally formed because of the buoyancy of salt. I know it's hard to think of rock as being buoyant, but relative to the more dense sedimentary rock of the Gulf Coast, salt is light. This in mind during the Tectonic phase, the salt pushes up and forms a dome. Around these domes faulting occures causing influxes of ground water from the tables sometimes, and in some cases causes the salts to dissolve. This can cause natural erosion and hollowing. Water and salt do not work well together, one consumes another. However salt does act as an effective trap for hydrocarbons, because of it's lack of porosity. But many times, the salt chemically changes the rocks makeup next to it in such a way that oil will no longer seep into them. In a sense, it destroys the porosity of a reservoir rock. So it's a toss up sometimes. Sometimes they work in favor of the Oil company sometimes they don't. But as I said before, we DO NOT drill into the and pump them out. Salt domes are all over our area, a lot of people probably don't know that there is a huge salt dome being mined under Hockley Texas, and has been for many many years. They actually blast the dome under Hockley almost daily. Other domes are mined by drilling a shaft into them and flushing them out with water, then the brine produced is run through huge compressors, thus causing mechanical vapor recompression and through the evaporation process they produce salt crystals, in an almost pure form. Baytown has one of the most state of the art, mechanical vapor recompression evaporation plants in the US. There are times when salt domes, are naturally hollowed out, but generally it's induced by human means, however don't blame it on the oil companies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Let's fine tune these explanations a little better before it gets too far out of hand. Salt Domes are NOT filled with Oil. Salt domes are general solid salt. This not exactly table salt like you may think, it's solid Halite structures and small amounts Anhydrite in them, but are generally solid salt, just un-refined. It's very zebra striped looking if you look at a vertical cross section of it, because it's layered with black and white Halite. Oil companies don't drill into salt domes seeking oil reserves, the reservoirs are generally draped around the dome on the edges. If anything we avoid the domes because of the presence of abnormal geo-pressures in relation to the domes. Salt domes are naturally formed during the tectonic phases in geologic time. Salt domes or "diapirs", are generally formed because of the buoyancy of salt. I know it's hard to think of rock as being buoyant, but relative to the more dense sedimentary rock of the Gulf Coast, salt is light. This in mind during the Tectonic phase, the salt pushes up and forms a dome. Around these domes faulting occures causing influxes of ground water from the tables sometimes, and in some cases causes the salts to dissolve. This can cause natural erosion and hollowing. Water and salt do not work well together, one consumes another. However salt does act as an effective trap for hydrocarbons, because of it's lack of porosity. But many times, the salt chemically changes the rocks makeup next to it in such a way that oil will no longer seep into them. In a sense, it destroys the porosity of a reservoir rock. So it's a toss up sometimes. Sometimes they work in favor of the Oil company sometimes they don't. But as I said before, we DO NOT drill into the and pump them out. Salt domes are all over our area, a lot of people probably don't know that there is a huge salt dome being mined under Hockley Texas, and has been for many many years. They actually blast the dome under Hockley almost daily. Other domes are mined by drilling a shaft into them and flushing them out with water, then the brine produced is run through huge compressors, thus causing mechanical vapor recompression and through the evaporation process they produce salt crystals, in an almost pure form. Baytown has one of the most state of the art, mechanical vapor recompression evaporation plants in the US. There are times when salt domes, are naturally hollowed out, but generally it's induced by human means, however don't blame it on the oil companies. I love helpful diagrams. Thanks. And the tidbit about Hockley. I never really thought too much about how salt is everywhere, and someone is extracting it. Then I read that book "Salt" -- a really engaging read. Science for the history nerds, and vice versa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 If that diagram is drawn to scale, then the human walking on the grass is sevral hundred feet tall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 If that diagram is drawn to scale, then the human walking on the grass is sevral hundred feet tall. Mark's a big guy, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 The is a whole site dedicated to om nom nom -ing.omnomnomnom.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.