"The sludgy geyser of gas, water and mud startled residents of Marina del Rey.

The hissing plume reached 100 feet into the air, the product of a hotel developer’s failed attempt to re-plug a long-abandoned well from the Playa del Rey oil field. Video of the gusher showed a worker hurrying to lower himself to safety via escape rope.

The 2019 blowout was stemmed after 10 minutes but not before an estimated 100,000 cubic feet of powerful planet-warming natural gas escaped into the atmosphere, about what an average U.S. household would use in two years.

The geyser most likely spewed from a naturally occurring underground gas pocket, state officials concluded. But for Angelenos, it was a dramatic reminder of the legacy of fossil fuel extraction on the city’s Westside — a legacy felt to this day."

Sammy Roth reports for the Los Angeles Times April 7, 2021. [2]