EMERGENCY ALERT EMERGENCY DECLARED ! SHALLOW GAS POCKETS NAPOLEOLLEONVILLE SALT DOME

[link to enenews.com]

Information from newly drilled monitoring wells provides guidance for action

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh announced today that he has ordered all companies operating on the Napoleonville Salt Dome to immediately begin work to assess the presence of natural gas in both the ground water aquifer and the salt dome cap rock beneath their operations; capture, vent or flare any natural gas that is encountered; and analyze any potential impacts to ground water in the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer.

Welsh asked the Shaw Group [Shaw's ties to nuclear industry here and here] to oversee the evaluation of natural gas concentrations in the ground water aquifer and to oversee the removal of any natural gas found through venting or other means.

Welsh said he issued the order to dome operators as part of a formal Declaration of Emergency and Directive to ensure public safety following the Office of Conservation’s discovery of two shallow pockets of natural gas in an area between the western edge of the Napoleonville Salt Dome and the Bayou Corne community. A contractor hired by the Office of Conservation drilled monitoring wells to sample for natural gas, and encountered the natural gas pockets at a depth of less than 50 feet from surface on Thursday.

This discovery comes as Conservation staff analyzed new data from Texas Brine LLC’s report to the Office of Conservation. The data indicated pockets of natural gas within the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer and the cap rock above the salt dome. That data came after DNR ordered Texas Brine to evaluate belowground conditions. Part of Texas Brine’s effort to comply with that order included the drilling of a shallow well to house seismic equipment in addition to the deeper well intended to enter the abandoned salt cavern.

Shit!
I wondered how long it would be before some truth got out on this! The bubbling has been going on a long time.....
This is NOT good!

This is just a symptom of the birthpangs going on over the entire earth right now.

Wasn't this site used for dumping (I'm sorry, "injecting") fracking wastefluids? Hence the high radioactivity, among other things?

I have not heard that, you have a link?

50 ft!


Jebus!

Get the fuck out!

Lightning.....BOOM!

Didn't need the video, OP. However, this is very serious. Gas moving to the surface means a displacement (filling) within the dome. If this is really the case, this will be a seriously awful disaster. Hard to imagine the implications.

Essentially yes. there are waste wells from drilling operations in the area- draw your conclusions. Also multiple chemicals, butane being intentionally stored in created caverns made in the walls of salt dome. I guess cheaper and hurricane wise safer than storing above ground? Maybe thought to be more secure from attack? Google or mapquest had shown a Dow bayou corne center of operations there as well, although I have never read a mention of dow among the companies that have tested in the bubbling areas.

AquaFire?



DOOM ON!!

Thread: UOM Earthquake Scientist Steve Horton Says New Louisiana Sinkhole Tremors Pattern Unlike Any He Has Ever Seen!

You are right about that. This is just the beginning of things to come.

What will the end result be??

Well I guess we will find out.

UOM Earthquake Scientist Steve Horton Says New Louisiana Sinkhole Tremors Pattern Unlike Any He Has Ever Seen!
By David J. Mitchell
River Parishes bureau
September 17, 2012

GONZALES — The sharp earth tremors that rattled the Bayou Corne community during the summer and presaged the emergence last month of a large sinkhole in Assumption Parish have returned, a University of Memphis scientist said.

The tremors appeared to build in July, reached a crescendo of several hundred per day then stopped at 2 p.m. Aug. 2, hours before the sinkhole was found early Aug. 3 on the property of Texas Brine Co. of Houston, officials said.

Later that same evening, the sinkhole prompted parish officials to call for a mandatory evacuation of 150 households in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas. It remains in effect.

Steve Horton, research scientist with the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information, said Friday that about a week ago, one or two sharp tremors began reoccurring every day or so.

Horton sits on a scientific advisory committee that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources formed to study the sinkhole, the tremors and natural gas releases that are also occurring in area bayous.

Horton, who is working with the U.S. Geological Survey to study the tremors, said the returning tremors are in the same vicinity as the earlier ones — a shallow area underground on the northwestern edge of the Napoleonville Dome.

The sinkhole and the abandoned Texas Brine salt cavern suspected of causing the sinkhole are also in that area.

The 1-by-3-mile dome is a solid salt deposit pushed up from an ancient seabed and used for decades for brine production, oil and gas exploration and hydrocarbon storage. The cavern was hollowed out of the dome throughout nearly three decades of solution mining to make brine for various industries.

Horton said seismic monitoring has narrowed down the source of the tremors to an area larger than — but containing — the sinkhole and the Texas Brine cavern.

While Horton said there is no cause for concern from the tremors, he said one question is whether they might be occurring in some sort of pattern, given how they built up, stopped and have now restarted.
“We were wondering if there might be a cycle to this and so we may or may not be starting a cycle,” Horton sai.d “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

“That is why we’re monitoring it at this point.”

John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said some of the returning tremors are being felt.

He said a state trooper was awakened by a tremor about 2:30 a.m. Friday. The trooper was sleeping in cabins near the sinkhole response command post in Bayou Corne along La. 70 South.

Horton said the most recent tremors are probably about a 2 on the Richter scale, which measures the energy of earthquakes.

What might be most vexing about the return of these sharp tremors is that they come in addition to long-period, lower frequency tremors that began Aug. 6. These long-period tremors come from northwest of the sinkhole and not in the salt dome, Horton said.

On a seismometer, the sharp tremors are recorded as having one back-and-forth oscillation in less than a second — multiple oscillations are bunched together like scribble-scratch on a graphical depiction — and the tremors last no more than a minute.

In contrast, on a seismometer, the long-period tremors are recorded as having one back-and-forth oscillation over 20 to 40 seconds — the wave pattern is easily distinguishable on a graph — and the tremors last for three to four minutes.

Horton said he has never seen such a combination of tremors before from the same area at the same time.

“Yes, it does lead to a lot of questions and that’s really where we are,” he said. “We have a lot of questions as to what’s going on and not a lot answers.”

He said the long-period tremors could be related to something connected with natural gas, but he cautioned that was speculation.

“There is something going on with these very long-period signals, and we don’t know what it is … I haven’t figured it out yet,” Horton said.

[link to theadvocate.com]

Sinkhole: Gas could not be controlled from well, mud and water pushed to surface — Workers plug with cement, dismantle drilling rig

Title: 11:00 a.m. Sunday Update
Source: Assumption Parish Police Jury
Date: Sept 15, 2012

Drilling of the sonic rig that encountered gas at 90’ on Friday was stopped and plugged with cement and grout as they were unable to put in the water well due to the inability to control the gas pushing mud and water to the surface. DNR hired The Shaw Group engineers to redesign a well that can be placed for venting operations. The geo-probe rigs for observation continue to be placed at lower depths to check for the presence of gas. They’re currently working on the Dugas & LeBlanc property, north of LA-70 and two geo-probe wells have been placed on Triche property. DNR is currently looking for locations as well as willing individual property owners to place additional geo-probe observation wells.

The drilling rig is being dismantled and moved out today [...]
[link to enenews.com]

badbadbad

I agree, but some would rather listen than read.

can somebody explain what this means and what is happening here. I know nothing about geology. What is this sink hole what is causing it. why is it happening.

so the ground is basically farting?

and what are the implications? how bad could this get?

We do not know, everything is speculation.

The sink hole is right next to the Nepolian salt dome, the salt dome has been mined which has left big caverns in it. Unused caverns are filled with brine top with diesel to help with pressure. The other caverns are used for storage of things related to the oil and gas industry. That includes, natural gas and butane as well as other things.

The cavern nearest the sink hole seems to have failed. I do not, (I don't think anyone does) know if this is all, or if there's more damage.

Last Edited by alexisj9 on 09/18/2012 05:37 AM

The natural Gas and Butane under that area have been estimated to have the power of several H bombs. I read somewhere that if it blows, you will be able to see the reflection off the moon. Then again it could be nothing.