The Great Collapse: crust weakening, slipping, and collapsing across the planet

Monster sinkhole sparks catastrophe worries
Acres of forest swallowed up, while residents fear gas explosion

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.

The early in the morning of August 3, reports started to come in of a sinkhole having formed overnight in the swamp in the area. The hole was discovered after a strong diesel smell was experienced in the area.

John Boudreaux, director of the Office of Homeland Security in Assumption Parish stated that initial measurements of the sinkhole found it to be 324 feet in diameter and up to 422 feet at its deepest part. The sinkhole was swallowing trees up to 100 feet tall in its wake. The most current reported estimates suggest it has since grown to over 6 acres in size.

Scientists believe a Texas Brine salt cavern inside the Napoleonville Dome near Bayou Corne failed and initiated a chain of events that created the sinkhole and released methane and crude oil.

Area residents were evacuated from the area, fearing a toxic gas release and possible explosion.

An aerial video of the sinkhole can be seen in the video below, one of several available on the video sharing site YouTube:

rest: http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/monster-sinkhole-sparks-catastrophe-worries/