Bayou Corne Sinkhole Swallows Trees In Seconds [Videos]
There’s a sinkhole in Louisiana that’s a little scarier than most. The Bayou Corne Sinkhole has forced an entire town to evacuate, is expanding at a rapid rate, and can swallow anything in its path in mere seconds.
The sinkhole opened up last August. At the time, it covered about an area of swampland in Assumption Paris. The 350 neighboring residents have been evacuated from their homes as the Bayou Corne Sinkhole has expanded to more than 24 acres.
OEP Director John Boudreaux said: “The sinkhole continues to be active and grow.”
Mother Jones writes that the massive sinkhole was probably created by the petrochemical company Texas Brine. The company tried to build a salt cavern in Assumption Parrish but instead created a 750 deep tree-swallowing sinkhole.
Mother Jones writes: “What happened in Bayou Corne, as near as anyone can tell, is that one of the salt caverns Texas Brine hollowed out—a mine dubbed Oxy3—collapsed. The sinkhole initially spanned about an acre. Today it covers more than 24 acres and is an estimated 750 feet deep. It subsists on a diet of swamp life and cypress trees, which it occasionally swallows whole.”
A video of the Bayou Corne sinkhole (you can watch below) was taken this week and posted on the Assumption Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness blog. The video shows a row of trees rapidly falling into the swampy abyss.
The sight is truly amazing but it isn’t the most dangerous part about the Louisiana sinkhole. The salt mine collapse also released millions of cubic feet of explosive gasses into the water. Assumption Parrish has started calling these little toxic leaks “burps.” How cute…
[Editor’s note: A previous version of this article stated that the Louisiana sinkhole destroyed everything in its “past.” The Inquisitr has checked with the Assumption Parrish Board Of Imaginary And Non-Existent Things and was told that the Bayou Corne Sinkhole, despite being extremely scary, does not actually eat memories.]
