If you want a bit more of an in-depth, audio depiction of this incident then check out the Well There's Your Problem episode on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKU0zu6KB8
It's a podcast about engineering disasters (with slides) that I enjoy and share whenever I can :D
The Mine Safety and Health Administration produced a report [1] with an inconclusive "Possible Causes" section. One thing I noticed there is that "the plotted location of the drill hole fell just within a mined-out section." I wonder if the drillers were using a map showing only the active galleries, though I would imagine that would have been mentioned if it came to light.
There are detailed maps and drawings of the mine works in this report. Also, there is a diagram [2] to be found in several places, apparently from Keller & Blodgett "Natural Hazards" (Prentice Hall.)
[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=EbjC-q99VHAC
[2] http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Sink_holes...
There is some amazing video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iZr2-Coqc
History channel video about it. Shares some other details and first hand accounts.
>So much water drained into the caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, causing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to flow into what was now a dry lakebed. This backflow created for a few days the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 ft (50 m), as the lake refilled with salty water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.
Today I Found Out has an episode on it too [1].
When your company consists of a bunch of interlinked services...
Iām dumbfounded that Texaco thought drilling there was a good idea.
I found this picture[1] via http://www.sketchyscience.com/2015/05/sinkholes-natures-most...
which shows visually what actually happened with the drill.
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[1] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Q5XY2Gkwns/VVK8dT2pPSI/AAAAAAAACG...