On November 20, 1980, Texaco drilled an exploratory oil well in Lake Peigneur, Louisiana, accidentally miscalculating their coordinates and puncturing the roof of the underlying Diamond Crystal Salt Mine. The freshwater lake, averaging just ten feet in depth, began draining rapidly into the subterranean cavern labyrinth. As water dissolved the massive salt pillars supporting the mine chambers, the underground cavity expanded exponentially, accelerating the vortex.
The resulting fluid dynamics created a massive whirlpool that swallowed the entire 150-foot drilling rig, eleven barges, tugboats, a botanical garden, and 65 acres of surrounding land. The drainage lowered the lake's water level so severely that it reversed the flow of the Delcambre Canal, an estuary channel that normally flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. Saline water rushed backward from the Gulf to fill the emptying basin, temporarily creating Louisiana's tallest waterfall at 150 feet as it plunged down the vortex.
This reverse flow permanently transformed Lake Peigneur from a shallow freshwater ecosystem into a deep brackish water body. Miraculously, despite the catastrophic destruction of infrastructure and landscape, all 55 miners underground and the oil rig crew managed to escape without a single human fatality.