![]() What he found has been a source of near-constant worry for the past decade. After the second sinkhole emerged, Griswold’s department head gave him a new task: Characterize the stability of the state’s 30 other brine wells and report back on where the next crisis might arise. The freshwater mixes with the salt, creating brine, which is brought to the surface for industrial purposes in this case, oil drilling. But a few months later, in November, dust once again streamed toward the sky as another similarly sized sinkhole opened, cracking a nearby roadway.īoth holes - and later, a third in Texas - emerged at the site of brine wells, industrial wells through which freshwater is pumped into a subterranean layer of salt. “At the time, it was an unfortunate situation, but most people considered it to be a one-off,” says Jim Griswold, a special project manager with New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department. ![]() Within minutes, a massive sinkhole emerged, which eventually grew to roughly 120 feet deep and 400 feet in diameter. O n a July morning in 2008, the ground below southeastern New Mexico began to shift and crack, shooting a huge plume of dust into the air. It depends on the type, density, and weight, of the formation, on what is used, and to balance/hold in check, the pressure that is first expected, and adjusted to what is discovered, in the oil/gas bearing formation/zone. … The viscosity of drilling fluid is changed as needed to circulate cuttings out of the well bore, and eventually to maintain a hydrostatic column of weight, against the formation. Karst topography, is typically referred to as a natural deposit of limestone from a dried up sea bed… when an excess of water comes into contact with it, it dissolves.Ī salt deposit, that is slurry mined by water, seems to be stretching the definition… although it leaves a void!ĭrilling muds and fluids, aren’t a typical “chemical”, that should be portrayed as toxic to the uninformed either…ĭrilling fluids can be any where from 8.5lbs/gallon to 13lbs/gallon.įresh water weighs in at 8.34lbs/gallon, and sea water, I imagine to be somewhere around 9-9.5lbs/gallon, but I’ve never weighed it! ![]()
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