We all make mistakes. We’re human, not infallible.

We’ve all been called on the carpet at work and chastised for an error. It’s just part of the process.

But imagine having to take responsibility for a mistake so huge that it caused the water to reverse flow and leave the Gulf of Mexico to create a giant lake in Louisiana, completely changing the ecosystem.

In 1980, workers drilling for oil in a shallow lake in the Pelican State made one giant miscalculation that caused entire barges and acres of land to disappear and created a 150-foot waterfall.

The 14-inch drill bit penetrated into a salt mine shaft beneath Lake Peigneur. The small hole created by the bit soon grew as the water from the lake above dissolved and eroded the salt below.

Water began to flood the tunnels endangering the more than 50 workers in the mine, who all escaped safely thanks to training and disaster planning.

All the water leaving the lake and filling the tunnels below created a vortex that began to suck in the oil rig. Workers had to abandon their station above the lake’s surface and watched in amazement as the entire 150-feet length of the derrick disappeared below the water of the shallow lake. In addition, huge barges floating on the surface were sucked in and disappeared.

Before the whirlpool stopped, even land and trees at the edge of the lake were sucked in and vanished. The vacuum caused the water to flow backwards in the canal that tied the lake to the Gulf of Mexico. The reversal created a huge waterfall (temporarily the largest waterfall in Louisiana) as nature reversed its norm in order to fill the void. It’s estimated that more than 3.5 billion gallons flowed in a northerly direction over two days to refill the lake and the mine tunnels beneath it. Before the pressure equalized, a huge geyser spewed from the mouth of the salt mine.

Unbelievably, no one died during the disaster, but lives were uprooted and changed. Even Mother Nature was altered. The once 10-foot deep lake now plunges to a depth of 1,000 feet in areas. Previously a freshwater system, the lake now supports saltwater fish.

That is one Oops Moment for the ages.

Learn more and see video footage about the Lake Peigneur disaster .

Tags: oil rig, engineering disaster, Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Peigneur, salt mine, vortex, vacuum

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