Sidoarjo Mud Volcano 2 year Anniversary
On May 29, 2006, the Sidoarjo mud volcano began erupting between 7,000 and 150,000 cubic meters of mud per day and it presently has no signs of stopping. A new report by scientists from Indonesia’s Institute of Technology Bandung and the UK University of Durham set to be published in the journal GSA Today confirms the early UN Report that an oil drilling rig was the cause of the disaster that has displaced an estimated 30,000 people. The report also indicates that the volcano, now named Lusi, could potentially collapse by as much as 146 meters (why not round that huh?). They say that the weight of the mud has already caused ground subsidence on the order of 14 meters near the center.
Images show the source of the mud flow, before and after. Acquired and processed by CRISP, National University of Singapore IKONOS image © CRISP 2004
Reuters story by way of Geology.com. See the University of Durham news release also. For a summary of the first year and the formation of the volcano, see my original post on the topic.