A tragic accident probably caused by drilling.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7699672.stm 

Makes me wonder what deep mining in geologically unstable areas could cause.....

There was an article on this in the Jan. National Geographic. Unfotunately not produced in full on the web site. Richard Davies's main points.

1. Drillers exploring for gas bored 3,580
feet down, then inserted a steel casing
to strengthen the hole.
2. Drilling went deeper without the steel
casing. Water and gas filled the hole,
and the resulting pressure fractured
unprotected rock strata.
3. Hot, high-pressure water was released,
probably from the Kujung aquifer.
4. The water raced upward and liquefied
masses of mudstone.
5. Mud surged through layers of
mudstone and sandstone and broke
through the surface.
6. Engineers built dikes in an attempt
to contain the mud.
7. Underground, caverns formed and
collapsed, causing faults.

Also the company, PT Lapindo Brantas is parly owned by the family of Aburizal Bakrie.. Indonesia's chief welfare minister who is a billionaire. Well we are talking Indonesia.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/volcano-culture/drowning-in-mud-text/1 

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The aerial pic is quite something: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/sci_nat_enl_1225735692/html/1.stm  - you can see what looks like a road or railway which used to run through there.

Can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be worth trying to start off another one at a bit of a distance in order to relieve the pressure, but that could make things worse I suppose... :angel:

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_feWtkSucvE 
Is a related incident (worth watching after going to Boulby)

Fascinating!

I hope they don't discover oil in Cheshire, or have some other reason for drilling, otherwise something similar could happen....

I do know that disused Cheshire salt mines are used for other purposes, including document storage, and scientific experiments (as is Boulby, I understand), and the loss would be enormous if an accident were to happen.

Going way off topic, but as salt mines tend to form the very largest of man-made underground cavities, they have other uses too. I believe that the Germans, instead of pumped storage hydroelectric power use compressed air stored in some of their old salt mines for the same purpose, levelling electricity demand between night and day. Just imagine what would happen if something went wrong and they pumped in too much air!

Alan