Volcano Journal Entry

Indonesia Tries to Plug Mud Volcano (February 23, 2007)

Indonesia dropped the first four of about 1,500 massive concrete balls into the huge mud volcano gushing out of the ground in eastern Java. The balls, which weigh over 500 pounds each, will hopefully slow the mudflow by up to 70 percent. The work was stopped short after a steel cable suddenly snapped but will continue as soon as it's fixed.

Not everyone is convinced the plan will work. Some geologists say there is just too much mud spread over too wide of an area below the surface. The balls may simply force the mud to the surface somewhere else. It's also possible the mud will exert enough pressure on the balls to shoot them back to the surface.

Every day for the past nine months, enough mud has oozed from the ground to fill about 50 large swimming pools. The mud is now about 30-feet deep in some places and threatens a major railroad. Some of the mud has been channeled into a nearby river and eventually to the sea by a series of dams.

The whole mess started in May 2006 when the volcano suddenly spewed fountains of mud and clouds of smelly hydrogen sulfide gas. Since then, the mud has swallowed four entire villages and forced about 15,000 people to move.

A mud volcano is a small 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. Although mud volcanoes usually occur naturally, some experts say the one in East Java was likely triggered by natural gas drilling in the area. The company responsible for the drilling disagrees. It says the mud eruption was probably caused by tectonic plate movements in the area.