Helen also told me the following refinery story which I have not verified: The refinery had dug out some big caverns in the limestone underneath, for hydrocarbon storage. Limestone is porous, but pressure from the surrounding water table meant that nothing would flow out of the caverns; rather water would infiltrate and the refinery would pump it out every so often.
Except one day someone let one of the caverns get too full. The outpressure from the stored hydrocarbons exceeded the inpressure from the water, and the hydrocarbons migrated through the porous rock into the water table.
Then some hapless soul in South Philadelphia turned on their gas range and blew up their house and four others.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread | More toots from mjd@mathstodon.xyz
text/geminiThis content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).