How a 14-inch Hole Created a 1,300 Foot Deep Saltwater Lake
Lake Peigneur is located in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. Before 1980, it was an approximately 10-foot deep fresh water lake with an island in the middle. Next to it, and partially under it, Diamond Crystal Salt Company maintained a salt mine, with salt being mined near the lake since 1919. Around large underground…
How Turbulence Happens, and Why It’s Not So Scary After All
Turbulence: spiller of coffee, jostler of luggage, filler of barf bags, rattler of nerves. But is it a crasher of planes? Judging by the reactions of many airline passengers, one would assume so; turbulence is far and away the number one concern of anxious passengers. Intuitively, this makes sense. Everybody who steps on a plane…
A Rare Look at the Graffiti-Covered History of NYC’s Subway
In just about every movie set in New York City in the 1970s and 80s there’s an establishing shot with a graffiti-covered subway. Saturday Night Fever That graffiti was like illegible technicolor hieroglyphics—a language that even most New Yorkers couldn’t read. It gave you a sense that the subways controlled by wild gangs of teenagers.…