Lake Peigneur in southern Louisiana was a shallow freshwater lake on November 20, 1980, and by the time the disaster subsided, the lake had drained into an underground salt mine, a whirlpool had formed on its surface and the landscape around Jefferson Island had been altered. A Texaco drilling rig had accidentally penetrated the salt mine beneath the lake, and the resulting flow of water into the underground workings created a rapidly expanding crater that swallowed the rig, barges, a tugboat, trees and parts of the surrounding land. The Washington Post reported the following day that the $5 million drilling rig and other equipment had been pulled into the earth.
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