Thursday, February 21, 2008

Can You Guess What This Is?






Around the perimeter of Park LaBrea you may notice these curious metal columns that look like a lamppost, but that have vents a the top instead of a lamp. What are they? They are methane vents, as Kevin Roderick recently discovered in the course of writing a book on L.A. There’s a note about the vents at this page his blog, down in the comments section.

The vents exhaust the methane so that the gas doesn’t build up underground (remember, we’re across the street from the bubbling, belching, geologically active TAR PITS and we’re sitting on top of an oil field). This was supposedly the same underground methane that blew a hole through the basement of the Ross Dress-for-Less (next door to PLB) in the 80s. But a 1992 report on the incident connected the explosion to a type of oilfield wastewater disposal popular in the 50s. Either way, these little vents remain reminders that everyday, as we move through our routine, we are smack in the middle of L.A.’s strange geologic circumstances.

2 comments:

Rahul said...

That's a very nice set of information about PLB...

Daniel Foster said...

Hi Sally -

I write for the Los Angeles Times and am researching a feature on Park La Brea. I would be interested in interviewing you for the story - with our without attribution on your part.

Please let me know, I think your viewpoint and blog is an interesting ingredient.

Thanks,

- Daniel
323.663.5457 fosterimage@mac.com