Fire:
A Louisiana sinkhole that has sucked
in trees and swamps as it spread to the size of 20 football fields is
now at risk of exploding.
Residents of Bayou Corne were evacuated a year ago when the sinkhole, which is emitting natural gases, opened up.
The gas exploration company that has been blamed for causing the problem
after a mine collapsed, has resorted to digging relief wells to try to
disperse the gas...While no homes have yet been sucked in,
officials warn that the gases being emitted could ignite, which would
leave the Louisiana swamp looking like 'the gates of Hell'.
In a similar case, a crater caused by Soviet geologists drilling in Turkmenistan in the 1970s has been a fiery pit for more than 40 years after the natural gases being released were lit.
The Louisiana sinkhole, which is expected to expand to 50 acres, is currently 25 acres wide and 350ft deep in some points. Methane bubbling up from it has also escaped into an aquifer.
Experts fear that if oil and gas rising to the surface became trapped it could build up in a crevice and then explode.
Check out this picture from
Turkmenistan:
If the natural gas ignited the sinkhole could become like the Door to Hell in Turkmenistan, which has been alight for 40 years
More on the Louisiana sinkhole
here.
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