Scientists are taking new steps to learn more about that Assumption Parish sinkhole, which has grown 5,000 square feet in the last week.

They're using large trucks to send sound waves into the ground to create a 3-D picture of what's going on under Bayou Corne.
 
Texas Brine unveiled the new device Saturday and demonstrated how the 3-D seismic activity tests will work. Small devices will be installed in the ground around the community, then a vibro-seismic truck will send sound waves deep underground. The devices will record the activity below and create a 3-D picture based on the results. No explosive devices will be used.

Other devices will map what lies under the deeper parts of the swamp that are under water.
 
Out on the bayou, an air gun-like device will be used to send waves through deep waters. Crews also continue to install geophones and vent wells around the bayou, as well as a containment berm around the sinkhole.

The sinkhole has been expanding steadily since it was discovered seven months ago, but it's also become about 300 feet more shallow as sand and land slough off and fill it in.

Roughly 5,000 square feet, a 75-foot-by-100-foot parcel of land, sloughed off into the sinkhole on the morning of Feb. 12, and by the afternoon, the land-loss had grown to an estimated 7,500 square feet.

It may currently could cover as many as nine acres.

The sinkhole was discovered south of La. 70 on Aug. 3, causing more than 150 residences in the area to be evacuated.

Scientists have said the sinkhole formed following the failure of an underground cavern in the Napoleonville Dome owned by Texas Brine Co. LLC.

Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the state capitol, the House and Senate Environmental Quality committees will meet about the sinkhole's impact on the community and its residents.