Over a year after the largest sinkhole ever discovered appeared, the sinkhole is almost 30 times larger - large enough, in fact, to fit TWO Liberty Islands within it, and containment does not appear to be any closer.

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This update is the 19th article in this Opednews series about the Bayou Corne sinkhole.

BACKGROUND: In Spring of 2012, Louisiana's Corne and Grand Bayou residents noticed strange bubbling in the bayou for many weeks, and they reported smelling burnt diesel fuel and sulfur. Suddenly a sinkhole estimated to be the size of two or three football fields appeared on Aug. 3, swallowing scores of 100-foot tall cypress trees. The sinkhole resulted from the failure of Texas Brine Company's abandoned underground brine cavern. The Department of Natural Resources issued a Declaration of Emergency on Aug. 6, and 150 families were evacuated. 

For maps, diagrams and additional information, please see the 18 previous installments in this series, listed at the end of this article.

A year after the largest sinkhole ever documented appeared, the cavity is almost 30 times larger, and containment does not appear to be any closer.

The Bayou Corne Sinkhole is currently at least 28 acres in size, and still growing click here. 

Liberty Island, at approximately 14 acres in size, could fit into the sinkhole twice!



According to the Assumption Parish Police Jury's Press Release on the day the sinkhole was discovered, Aug., 3, 2012, it was originally about 200' x 200', just under a square acre (which is 208.7' x 208.7').

However cave-ins have continued, enlarging it to its current monumental size.

Photos below are offered for comparison, showing how the size the of the sinkhole expanded between August 2012 and August 2013. (Although camera angles are slightly different, the sizes and positions of the two white cylindrical storage containers in the background of each photo can be used as an aid for comparison.)



 

On Wed. Aug 21, at 3:25 pm Central time,  the Assumption Parish Police Jury noted, "There has been another burp that occurred and is continuing on the sinkhole. All operations have been pulled from inside of the sinkhole until activity calms down. The monitoring/alert status has been heightened to Code 3."

Sinkhole "burps" have heralded cave-ins in the past. And at about 7:15 that evening, a dramatic cave-in was captured on video, with huge trees disappearing quickly into the depths of the sinkhole. Watch carefully for the beginning of visible tree movement at 0:18. More than a dozen huge trees disappear under the water in about 20 seconds, and the video continues, showing the water movements in the aftermath of the descent.

The Assumption Parish Police Jury has noted in previous communications that Code 3 "restricts all work inside the containment berm, indicates seismic activity has elevated to a point similar to what has been seen in past monitoring prior to a sloughing on the shore or movement beneath sinkhole (More than 50 MEQs or VLPs in 24 hours)"

MEQs are sharp seismic signals associated with rock movement, called mini-earthquakes. Longer signals associated with gas or liquid movement are called Very Long Periods (VLPs.)

On Aug 18 at 11:50 am the Assumption Parish Police Jury released a photo of a section of trees in the the eastern portion of the sinkhole that was showing signs of caving in. They noted that approximately 25 trees and an area about 50' x 25' were involved. This photo of that area was taken on the morning of Aug. 18, 2013.



These trees can be seen in the video above, but were apparently not the ones that disappeared into the sinkhole.

According to WBRZ.com, as the sinkhole gets closer to Highway 70, plans are being made for an alternate route: "State transportation leaders (say) there are plans to establish a viable road should the main artery for the community be jeopardized by the disaster."

Emitted gases continue to be monitored, some evacuated families have accepted buyouts from Texas Brine, even though they say they are not receiving appropriate compensation for their losses.

UPDATE Aug 22, 2023, 4:40 Eastern:
At 4:20 pm Eastern, the Assumption Parish Police Jury posted a flyover video shot today.


UPDATES, Aug. 22nd, 2:30 pm Eastern:
The Assumption Parish Police Jury has provided a link to a map of the Aug. 21 cave-in shown in the video above.
The Assumption Parish Police Jury noted that "at approximately 9:00 this morning, an additional tree (in the same area as yesterday afternoon's slough in) went down into the sinkhole," which is shown in this video.

Note:

1. At the time of the discovery of the sinkhole, it was estimated to be two or three football fields in size. More measurements were available later, after additional cave-ins. The Police Jury estimates the original sinkhole size as about 200' x 200', which is closer to the size of one football field, although it grew rapidly after being discovered.
2. The author has covered the Bayou Corne Sinkhole incident in 18 other articles since August, 2012. She did not contribute articles to Opednews from early July through mid-August, while traveling.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.