Volcano Journal Entry
Mud Volcano Swallows More Land (March 10, 2008)
The red dot shows the location of East Java's mud volcano. Relief Web.
Indonesia's mud volcano is still gushing mud and gobbling up land. The mud has already swallowed up thousands of homes in East Java. About 15,000 people have been forced to move. Now, three more villages are in danger from the mud.
The disaster began in May 2006. Fountains of mud and clouds of smelly hydrogen sulfide gas suddenly burst from the ground in an area where gas drilling was going on. Since then, the mud has swallowed a dozen villages. Indonesia has had little luck stopping the flow. The mud still spurts out a rate of nearly 150,000 cubic meters per day.
Last year, Indonesia dropped huge concrete balls into the mud to try and stop the flow. That failed. Now, it's trying to channel mud into the Porong River, with modest success.
A natural mud volcano is a cone of mud and clay built from a mix of hot water and underground sediments. The sediments bubble up from rocks deep below the surface heated by Earth's magma. But there's nothing natural about this one. Geologists blame the drilling company for working in an unstable area. The government recently ordered the drilling company to pay victims of the disaster.
