Monster Sinkhole Sparks Catastrophe Worries

Acres of forest swallowed up, while residents fear gas explosion

by Steve Elwart

Southern Louisiana is in danger of experiencing an environmental calamity rivaling the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, thanks to a massive, expanding sinkhole that is gobbling up the forest and lighting up YouTube with videos of this startling phenomenon.

In southern Louisiana, about 40 miles south of Baton Rouge in Assumption Parish, is the town of Bayou Corne. The town is in the middle of the oil rich area of the coastal United States and is near the nation’s Strategic Oil Reserve. 

On May 31 of this year, parish residents began to notice bubbles percolating up from both Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou. This is not unusual for the area known for its “swamp gas,” the product of decaying organic matter. The amount of the gas emanating from the water, however, was unusual. Dennis Landry, who owns guest cabins about half a mile from the hole, said that the number gas bubbles were growing in size, and in some areas they made the bayou look like “a boiling crawfish pot.”

On June 22 state officials began monitoring the gas coming up from the bayou for hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and the explosive levels of natural gasses.

Residents within the community then experienced and reported tremors and the parish enlisted the aid of the United States Geological Service in locating the origin and cause of the seismic activity. Immediately after the USGS began monitoring the area, they detected seismic activity, but no probable cause was able to be detected at that time.

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