Volcano Journal Entry

Mud Volcano Keeps Growing (January 12, 2009)

In May 2006, fountains of mud suddenly burst from the ground in an area where gas drilling was going on in East Java, Indonesia. Now, more than two and a half years later, mud is still gushing out. The mud volcano has already swallowed up more than a dozen villages and is showing no signs of slowing down. The volcano is spitting out about 150,000 cubic meters of mud every day.

The growing lake of steaming mud is just an hour away from the big city of Surabaya. The mud is driving people from their homes and burying factories and fields. Roads, bridges, and a major gas pipeline have all been rerouted. About 46,000 people have been treated at health clinics for respiratory problems from gases spewing from the eruption. Meanwhile, the land around it is sinking at the rate of 40 feet per year.

A natural mud volcano is a cone of mud and clay made from the mixture of hot water and sediments. Heated by Earth's magma, the sediments bubble up from rocks deep below the surface. But there's nothing natural about this volcano, however. Geologists blame the drilling company for looking for gas in an area known to be geologically unstable.

All efforts to stop the flow have failed miserably. Early on, the government tried dropping hundreds of huge concrete balls into the mud. The mud just swallowed them up and kept right on gushing.