This Jeff Hart character is interesting. Used to drill wells, he's developed a 'feel' for his machinery. Word has it he just 'knows' what's going on at the end of his drill; feels it with the vibrations in his feet. The whole operation was fascinating.
Heh! I, too, have been down in the Hockley mine. It's a hoot!
Interestingly, salt mines are not required to have ventilation shafts or multiple access tunnels. None has ever been known to cave, blow up, or say naughty words.
You'd be no good as a miner then!
It's also very dark in a mine, darker than you could ever imagine and never silent, little noises, creaking and groaning.
I know nothing about mining in other countries but in the UK where "deep mining" for coal was the norm, miners descended the pit shaft, up to about a mile deep in some, in a "cage" about 6ft square and packed in like sardines.
Nah, very broad shoulders, like Arnie but bigger :-)
For a similar disaster, google or wikipedia the Knox mine disaster of 1959 in Pennsylvania. Some billions of gallons of water from the Susquehanna river flooded a mine when it was allowed too close to the river bed. 12 deaths. It pretty much ended mining in the northern end of the anthracite region as all the old mines interconnected at some point or another. There was even a (rare) criminal investigation afterwards. If you google enough you can even find an mpg of old film footage showing the whirlpool where the river was draining into the hole.
Musta been a hell of a sight.
Had to be major scary for anyone close.
The list of the equipment that went down the drain is unbelievable. Do you know how big a drilling rig and eleven barges are. Gone as in disappeared.
I wonder if it was, "Oh, S*it!" or "Oops!"
Steve
Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.
There's two seats behind the motor on a Bell 213, also called a Huey AH1. They are wide enough for two "average" men. The door will knock you in the knees if you aren't watching when they shut it. An hour in one of those two seats with a "hefty" fellow passenger is challenging.
Steve
Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.
Steve
LOL!! Best part of the story!!
Really interesting. If that were to happen here, there might be a bit bigger problem as we're talking about Lake Huron draining into the largest salt mine in the world.:
Fun thought as there's a 4000 meg nuke just up the coast a way which could temporarily run out of cooling water...
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Creating an "OH S*IT" moment.
You know you're in trouble when your flight to Las Vegas calls for those needing assistance and everyone except you gets up - and there is a Bucket of seat belt extenders waiting for them ...
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SFWIW
There is a salt mine in downtown Cleveland that extends out under Lake Erie.
There are also several Euclid dump trucks down in the mine.
These are the same trucks used in above ground mining and have been nicknamed "Eucs".
They definitely are not tiny.
Trucks were disassembled, lowered down, then reassembled.
Since the mine is dry and a constant 54F, trucks last a long time.
Lew
Aren't these the same salt mines where Carl Reines did some of his early work on neutrinos? Work that eventually led to the Nobel Prize in physics.
Jim
-------------------- I don't have a clue.
It's an operational salt mine.
Lew
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