CASE STUDY Louisiana: Sinkhole monitoring In August 2012, RESPEC was contracted to provide field instrumenta- tion and early-warning monitoring services at a developing sinkhole on the western flank of the Napoleonville salt dome in Louisiana. A deep underground salt-brine cavern had experienced a structural breach, which allowed the surrounding sediments to flow into the cavern, cause a sinkhole at the surface, and liberate gases from the disturbed sediments. Over time the sinkhole grew to over 40 acres in size and was over 400 feet deep at its maximum depth. RESPEC engineers deployed a real-time early-warning system to con- tinually monitor the tilt and water levels around the developing sink- hole. The sinkhole is in a coastal cypress swamp, so the monitoring system had to opera

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