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A mud flow disaster of epic proportions—the worst of its kind in history—has been ongoing since May 29, 2006, in Sidoarjo regency in East Java, Indonesia. Nicknamed Lusi, a portmanteau of “lumpur” (mud) and its location, the mud flow has covered what is roughly equivalent to 650 football fields—double the size of New York’s Central Park—with mud that is 40 meters (130 feet) deep. Sixteen villages have been buried, more than 40,000 people displaced, and at least 13 people have died.

What is mindboggling is that 13 years later, Lusi continues to gush forth at a rate of 80,000 cubic meters (2.8 million cubic feet) per day, which is enough to fill 32 Olympic sized swimming pools, and weighs about 30 million pounds. This is an improvement from the early days when its peak rate was 180,000 cubic meters (6.4 million cubic feet) per day, which is equivalent to 72 Olympic sized swimming pools or 800 railroad boxcars. Earthen levees and dikes are basically what keep the mud at bay from the surrounding industrial city, and residents live in fear every day that their home will become part of the next deluge. Scientists predict the mud volcano will continue to regurgitate the sludge anywhere from another 20 to 40 years.

These facts are precisely why director Cynthia Wade was surprised to hear about Lusi for the first time as she was shooting a commercial for a nonprofit in Indonesia in 2012. When she went to investigate, she was floored by what she saw. She captured enough footage and did enough interviews to make a three-minute teaser when she returned, but she did not have the confidence and wherewithal to pursue the film further until she watched a documentary taking place in Indonesia that had been directed by Sasha Friedlander.

Wade reached out to her in 2013 and found out Friedlander was fluent in Bahasa and had also reported on the disaster when she worked in Indonesia as a journalist and translator for the “Bali Post.” Given the opportunity to dive back into a news story she had worked on, this time from the perspective of the victims, Friedlander was excited to join the project, especially since this gave her the opportunity to bring worldwide attention to the problem.

After five years, Gritmade its world premiere at the 2018 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. It will be shown on PBS’ POV series on Sept. 9. The film centers on 14-year-old Dian and her family as they live during the aftermath of the disaster and fight with others for full compensation for their losses.

Even after 13 years, the question of whether the disaster is natural or manmade still hangs in the air. Scientists are divided between two camps: One side believes the eruption was triggered by a 6.3 earthquake that happened two days before in Yogyakarta, which is 260 km (161.5 miles) away from the site. The other believes oil and natural gas company PT Lapindo Brantas, is to blame, which was drilling 198 meters (650 feet) away from the eruption.

Often overlooked by the media and lost in the swirling debates within the scientific community about the causes for the eruption, the displaced victims believe Lapindo is the culprit and have waited for years to receive full compensation for their losses. On the anniversary of the eruption, the victims have annually staged and coordinated protests and demonstrations to voice their anger and demand what is rightfully theirs.

Lapindo is a joint venture among three companies. One of these companies, PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk, is directly connected to the business conglomerate Bakrie Group. Aburizal Bakrie used to be the chairman of the group before stepping down to serve in the government in 2004 as first the minister of economy and later as the minister of welfare. Despite stepping down as chairman, Bakrie remained one of the owners of the group and is a focal point of the victims’ demands and frustrations.

The initial estimate of damages in 2006 was $180 million, but by 2008 the estimate rose to $844 million and was expected to get even higher. The government mandated as early as 2007 that Bakrie pay at least half of it while also paying compensation to the victims. This is the same year Forbes Asia named Bakrie the richest man in Indonesia. Although Lapindo complied and paid the victims in irregular installments or small portions, the payments slowed down during the recession. According to Globe Asia magazine in 2008, Bakrie’s and his family’s net worth was estimated at $9.2 billion and was declared “the undisputed richest family in Indonesia.” In June 2018, Globe Asia ranked Bakrie as the 12th richest in the country with a net worth of $2.05 billion.

Bakrie Group’s control and ownership includes some of the country’s major broadcasting networks. According to the film’s directors, news about Lusi were contained and prevented from getting wide circulation domestically and internationally. Considering the rampant corruption in Indonesia, the accusation seems plausible, but searches for the news can easily be found through major news sources such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse around the time of the eruption with ongoing reporting throughout the following decade.

Lusi poses environmental challenges as well. The vents at the epicenter still shoot gases such as methane and hydrogen sulphide. To help contain the mud, it has been dumped into the Porong River, which eventually leads to the Bali Sea. This has affected the local shrimp and fishing industry and may have introduced heavy metals into the water system, affecting the health of those living around the disaster. Possibly the only positive outcome is the creation of Lusi Island, a fishery with mangrove plantations that was made possible from the mud dredged from the river. Plans are in the works to make it a future tourist attraction.

Displaced residents have made a living off of Lusi by joining the disaster tourism industry, which has become more common in Indonesia due to its many earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Visitors of all types, from models to researchers, come to see Lusi, which has become a visual paradox that draws a mix of joy, wonder and curiosity while simultaneously being a source of misery.

Lapindo’s CEO announced in 2016 that the company will resume gas drilling in Sidoarjo to repay the $56.5 million loan the government gave the company which was used in part to pay off compensation claims.

The documentary follows Dian and her mother Harwati as they deal with life in the aftermath of the disaster eight years later. Harwati is a single mother raising two daughters while working seven days a week shuttling tourists on her motorbike who want to see Lusi. Her husband, who was a Lapindo employee, died a year after the disaster from cancer. As the 2014 presidential election approaches, a candidate that resonates with the demonstrators brings hope not unlike the feeling Americans experienced during the 2008 election year.

From the beginning, Wade and Friedlander understood the difficulty in marketing a film about mud and decided from the start that most of their funding would go into the cinematography, even forgoing their own payment as directors. Over the course of five years, they made nine trips where they filmed during 18 hour days, each trip lasting three weeks. The directors make no secret about who they think is to blame for the disaster: the documentary focuses on Lapindo, its role in the cause of the disaster, the people’s protests against the company, and includes an interview with Bakrie himself.

The long distance posed a significant challenge for the directors since funding was collected and saved sporadically throughout the years; there was always the possibility that the directors would not have enough money saved to make the 30-hour flight to Indonesia when something urgent happened. Fortunately, they had a local film crew that could jump in whenever they were not present.

Although the directors initially followed three separate families, they ended up focusing on Harwati since she was a vocal and involved leader and demonstrator from the start. Harwati always encourages Dian to fight against social injustice, and as the film progresses, Dian rises and becomes a voice and activist for her community with aspirations of becoming a human rights lawyer.

Grit is a powerful and moving film that captures the hauntingly arresting beauty of the disaster area with eloquent wonder. The documentary not only highlights female leadership and social activism but acts as a warning signal to people about the injustice and dodgy circumstances that can occur when a government leader is also heavily involved in business.

The Sidoarjo DisasterIn May 2006, near a densely populated city in Indonesia’s East Java called Sidoarjo, the ground erupted in a volcano of scalding hot mud. As local residents fled their homes, the hole continued to expel toxic gaseous mud, killing 20 people and displacing immediately almost 40,000. Known as the Lusi mudflow, the continuously flowing mud has submerged homes, factories, rice paddies, roads and 12 villages.

For the first several months of the mudflow, the hole expelled about 26 million gallons of mud a day, according to the government agency that oversees disaster recovery. The rate has since slowed to 7 to 15 million gallons a day, but the mudflow shows no signs of stopping. The Indonesian government has built levees to contain the mud and a system to divert the flow into the Porong River, but this infrastructure has failed to contain the mudflow and has needed to be rebuilt several times. By July 2015, the area contained an estimated 1.26 billion cubic feet of mud; experts estimated that the mud would continue to flow for another 8 to 18 years.

The Lusi mudflow has had severe impact on the region’s economy and public health. According to a 2015 article in Nature Geoscience, the disaster has cost the region more than $2.7 billion. Residents who worked in local factories have lost their jobs, and the rising lake of mud makes rebuilding impossible. The disaster has affected biodiversity in the Porong River, where fish species that cannot adapt to chemicals from the mudflow go extinct, curtailing a food source that locals previously relied upon. Since the eruption, respiratory infection cases in the area have more than doubled; however, as in all natural resource contamination cases, it is difficult to prove the causality of an illness.

Drake, Phillip. “Emergent Injustices: An Evolution of Disaster Justice in Indonesia’s Mud Volcano.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, July 18, 2018. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2514848618788359

Nuwer, Rachel. “Indonesia’s ‘Mud Volcano’ and Nine Years of Debate About Its Muck.” The New York Times, Sept. 21, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/9-years-of-muck-mud-and-debate-in-java.html

Scott, Michon. “Sidoarjo Mud Flow, Indonesia.” NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day, Dec. 10, 2008. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/36111/sidoarjo-mud-flow-indonesia

Causation Debate and Victim CompensationThe cause of the Lusi mudflow has been hotly debated among scientists, government officials and local residents for over a decade. This debate is fraught, because the outcome will determine who is responsible for covering the cost of both disaster relief infrastructure and compensation for the victims who lost their homes. Many believe that the mudflow was triggered by gas drilling conducted by PT Lapindo Brantas, an oil and gas company that was drilling near the site just before it erupted. Others, including Lapindo, argue that the disaster was caused by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck 150 miles west of the drill site two days earlier. Scientists have published conflicting studies, but as more evidence has emerged in recent years, a majority of scientists have come to support the hypothesis that Lapindo is responsible.

In 2015, an international team of scientists published a study in the journal Nature Geoscience that concluded with 99 percent certainty that Lapindo’s drilling caused the disaster. Just before the explosion, the company’s workers were probing for a new natural gas deposit in Sidoarjo when they hit a rock formation and liquid began to rush up through the drill hole. The engineers sealed the hole, but mud continued to build up underground; eventually the pressure became so great that it burst through the ground 500 feet from the drilling site. The 2015 report includes a new piece of evidence: gas readings that were initially withheld by Lapindo show that a process called liquefaction, which is the mechanism by which an earthquake would have caused the explosion, did not occur. Meanwhile, the data shows that hydrogen sulfide built in the vent in the first days of the eruption, suggesting that the mud came from two miles underground—the same depth reached by the drill. The study’s lead author argued that Lapindo failed to take standard precautions to prevent an accident: “This almost certainly could have been prevented if proper safety procedures had been taken,” Dr. Mark Tingay told the New York Times.

Immediately following the disaster, the Indonesian government refused to assign blame, citing a lack of scientific proof that Lapindo was responsible. The company is owned by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, a former cabinet minister, billionaire and leader of an influential political party, the Golkar party. The Bakrie family has a net worth of about $5.4 billion, making them one of the wealthiest families in Indonesia. Victims and commentators speculate that political corruption prevented the government from holding Lapindo accountable initially. The local residents led a sustained protest movement, staging demonstrations and filing lawsuits to demand compensation and accountability from Lapindo. For example, on the one-year anniversary of the disaster, activists erected a giant puppet representing Bakrie on the Porong embankment near the mudflow site, defying bans on demonstrations in that area.

In 2007, the Indonesian government ordered Lapindo to provide cash compensation or resettlement to victims who were in a designated “core disaster area.” This ruling caused frustration among many residents, because it relied on a map that many thought did not accurately represent the impact of the mudflow, and because the compensation was unequal. Further, compensation funds were inconsistent: families would receive money for a few months and then the payments would stop. In 2008, Lapindo claimed that it was unable to pay because it faced financial problems due to the global financial crisis. In 2014, newly elected president Joko Widodo, who had campaigned on a promise to help the Lusi victims, ordered his government to loan Lapindo $45.5 million to fund the remaining victim compensation. Lapindo promised to repay the government within four years.

The outstanding compensation payments were completed in October 2015, but some of the mudflow victims continue to organize. Despite the compensation order, Lapindo has not been held legally responsible for the disaster. In 2016, the company announced that it would resume drilling near Sidoarjo in order to pay off its debt to the government. Activists have led a campaign against this new drilling plan, including a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jakarta on National Anti-Mining Day in 2019. Many of the Lusi mudflow victims are still struggling to survive and simply want assurance that Lapindo’s drilling will not upend their lives again.

Drake, Phillip. “Emergent Injustices: An Evolution of Disaster Justice in Indonesia’s Mud Volcano.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, July 18, 2018. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2514848618788359

Farida, Anis. “Reconstructing Social Identity for Sustainable Future of Lumpur Lapindo victims.” Procedia Environmental Sciences 20 (2014): 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2014.03.059

Jensen, Fergus. “Indonesian Energy Company Plans to Resume Drilling Near Mud Volcano.” Reuters, Jan. 12, 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-gas-volcano-idUSKCN0UQ1W820160112

Nuwer, Rachel. “Indonesia’s ‘Mud Volcano’ and Nine Years of Debate About Its Muck.” The New York Times, Sept. 21, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/9-years-of-muck-mud-and-debate-in-java.html

August 28, 2004 (top), November 11, 2008 (middle) and October 20, 2009 (bottom) views of the Sidoarjo mud flow. Red areas indicate vegetation in these NASA ASTER false-color satellite images.

The Sidoarjo mud flow (commonly known as Lumpur Lapindo, wherein lumpur is the Indonesian word for mud) is the result of an erupting mud volcanoPorong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia that has been in eruption since May 2006. It is the biggest mud volcano in the world; responsibility for the disaster was assigned to the blowout of a natural gas well drilled by PT Lapindo Brantas,distant earthquake that occurred in a different province.

At its peak it spewed up to 180,000 cubic meters (240,000 cu yd) of mud per day.levees since November 2008, resultant floodings regularly disrupt local highways and villages, and further breakouts of mud are still possible.

Mud volcano systems are fairly common on Earth, and particularly in the Indonesian province of East Java. Beneath the island of Java is a half-graben lying in the east–west direction, filled with over-pressured marine carbonates and marine muds.inverted extensional basin which has been geologically active since the Paleogene epoch.Oligo-Miocene period. Some of the overpressured mud escapes to the surface to form mud volcanoes, which have been observed at Sangiran Dome near Surakarta (Solo) in Central Java and near Purwodadi city, 200 km (120 mi) west of Lusi.

The East Java Basin contains a significant amount of oil and gas reserves, therefore the region is known as a major concession area for mineral exploration. The Porong subdistrict, 14 km south of Sidoarjo city, is known in the mineral industry as the Brantas Production Sharing Contract (PSC), an area of approximately 7,250 km2 which consists of three oil and gas fields: Wunut, Carat and Tanggulangin. As of 2006, three companies—Santos (18%), MedcoEnergi (32%) and PT Lapindo Brantas (50%)—had concession rights for this area; PT Lapindo Brantas acted as an operator.

On May 28, 2006, PT Lapindo Brantas targeted gas in the Kujung Formation carbonates in the Brantas PSC area by drilling a borehole named the "Banjar-Panji 1 exploration well". In the first stage of drilling the drill string first went through a thick clay seam (500–1,300 m deep), then through sands, shales, volcanic debris and finally into permeable carbonate rocks.UTC+7) on the 29th of May 2006, after the well had reached a total depth of 2,834 m (9,298 ft), this time without a protective casing, water, steam and a small amount of gas erupted at a location about 200 m southwest of the well.hydrogen sulfide gas was released and local villagers observed hot mud, thought to be at a temperature of around 60 °C (140 °F).

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred in Yogyakartaloss circulation material was pumped into the well, a standard practice in drilling an oil and gas well. A day later the well suffered a ‘kick’, an influx of formation fluid into the well bore. The kick was reported by Lapindo Brantas drilling engineers as having been killed within three hours,

From a model developed by geologists working in the UK,limestone, causing entrainment of mud by water. Whilst pulling the drill string out of the well, there were ongoing losses of drilling mud, as demonstrated by the daily drilling reports stating "overpull increasing", "only 50% returns" and "unable to keep hole full".drilling for oil.

The relatively small distance, around 600 feet (180 m), between the Lusi mud volcano and the well being drilled by Lapindo (the Banjarpanji well) may not be a coincidence, as less than a day before the start of the mud flow the well suffered a kick. Their analysis suggests that the well has a low resistance to a kick.

The relatively close timing of the Yogyakarta earthquake, the problems of mud loss and kick in the well and the birth of the mud volcano continue to interest geoscientists. Was the mud volcano due to the same seismic event that triggered the earthquake? Geoscientists from Norway, Russia, France and Indonesia have suggested that the shaking caused by the Yogyakarta earthquake may have induced liquefaction of the underlying Kalibeng clay layer, releasing gases and causing a pressure change large enough to reactivate a major fault nearby (the Watukosek fault), creating a mud flow path that caused Lusi.

They have identified more than 10 naturally triggered mud volcanoes in the East Java province, with at least five near the Watukosek fault system, confirming that the region is prone to mud volcanism. They also showed that surface cracks surrounding Lusi predominantly run NE-SW, the direction of the Watukosek fault. Increased seep activity in the mud volcanoes along the Watukosek fault coincided with the May 27, 2006 seismic event. A major fault system may have been reactivated, resulting in the formation of a mud volcano.

Lusi is near the arc of volcanoes in Indonesia where geothermal activities are abundant. The nearest volcano, the Arjuno-Welirang complex, is less than 15 km away. The hot mud suggests that some form of geothermal heating from the nearby magmatic volcano may have been involved.

There was controversy as to what triggered the eruption and whether the event was a natural disaster or not. According to PT Lapindo Brantas it was the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake that triggered the mud flow eruption, and not their drilling activities.moment magnitude 6.3 hit the south coast of Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces killing 6,234 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless. At a hearing before the parliamentary members, senior executives of PT Lapindo Brantas argued that the earthquake was so powerful that it had reactivated previously inactive faults and also creating deep underground fractures, allowing the mud to breach the surface, and that their company presence was coincidental, which should exempt them from paying compensation damage to the victims.government of Indonesia has the responsibility to cover the damage instead. This argument was also recurrently echoed by Aburizal Bakrie, the Indonesian Minister of Welfare at that time, whose family firm controls the operator company PT Lapindo Brantas.

However the UK team of geologists downplayed Lapindo"s argument and concluded "...that the earthquake that occurred two days earlier is coincidental."epicenter. The intensity of the earthquake at the drilling site was estimated to have been only magnitude 2 on Richter scale, the same effect as a heavy truck passing over the area.

On June 5, 2006, MedcoEnergi (one partner company in the Brantas PSC area) sent a letter to PT Lapindo Brantas accusing them of breaching safety procedures during the drilling process.vice president Jusuf Kalla announced that PT Lapindo Brantas and the owner, the Bakrie Group, would have to compensate thousands of victims affected by the mud flows.

Aburizal Bakrie frequently said that he is not involved in the company"s operation and further distanced himself from the incident.Indonesia"s Capital Markets Supervisory Agency[Id] blocked the sale.Virgin Islands, the Freehold Group, for US$1 million, which was also halted by the government supervisory agency for being an invalid sale.bankruptcy to avoid the cost of cleanup, which could amount to US$1 billion.

On August 15, 2006, the East Java police seized the Banjar-Panji 1 well to secure it for the court case.WALHI, meanwhile had filed a lawsuit against PT Lapindo Brantas, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian Minister of Energy, the Indonesian Minister of Environmental Affairs and local officials.

After investigations by independent experts, police had concluded the mud flow was an "underground blow out", triggered by the drilling activity. It is further noted that steel encasing lining had not been used which could have prevented the disaster. Thirteen Lapindo Brantas" executives and engineers face twelve charges of violating Indonesian laws.

Australian artist Susan Norrie investigated the political and ecological meaning of event in a sixteen-screen video installation at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

As of October 30, 2008, the mud flow was still ongoing at a rate of 100,000 cubic meters (130,000 cu yd) per day.3 per day, with 15 bubbles around its gushing point.

After new hot gas flows began to appear, workers started relocating families and some were injured in the process. The workers were taken to a local hospital to undergo treatment for severe burns. In Siring Barat, 319 more families were displaced and in Kelurahan Jatirejo, 262 new families were expected to be affected by the new flows of gas. Protesting families took to the streets demanding compensation which in turn added more delays to the already stressed detour road for Jalan Raya Porong and the Porong-Gempol toll road.

The Indonesian government has stated that their heart is with the people. However the cabinet meeting on how to disburse compensation has been delayed until further notice. A local official Saiful Ilah signed a statement announcing that, "The government is going to defend the people of Siring." Following this announcement protests came to an end and traffic flow returned to normal an hour later.

The Australian oil and gas company Santos Limited was a minority partner in the venture until 2008. In December 2008, the company sold its 18% stake in the project to Minarak Labuan, the owner of Lapindo Brantas Inc. Labuan also received a payment from Santos of $US22.5 million ($A33.9 million) "to support long-term mud management efforts". The amount was covered by existing provision for costs relating to the incident. Santos had provisioned for $US79 million ($A119.3 million) in costs associated with the disaster. Santos had stated in June 2006 that it maintained "appropriate insurance coverage for these types of occurrences".

New mudflows spots begun in April 2010, this time on Porong Highway, which is the main road linking Surabaya with Probolinggo and islands to the east including Bali, despite roadway thickening and strengthening. A new highway is planned to replace this one however are held up by land acquisition issues. The main railway also runs by the area, which is in danger of explosions due to seepage of methane and ignition could come from something as simple as a tossed cigarette.

As of June 2009, the residents had received less than 20% of the suggested compensation. By mid-2010, reimbursement payments for victims had not been fully settled, and legal action against the company had stalled. It is worth mentioning that the owner of the energy company, Aburizal Bakrie was the Coordinating Minister for People"s Welfare at the time of the disaster, and is currently the chairman of

The Sidoarjo mud is rich in rock salt (halite) and has provided a source of income for the local residents who have been harvesting the salt for sale at the local market.

In late 2013, international scientists who had been monitoring the situation were reported as saying that the eruption of mud at Sidoardjo was falling away quite rapidly and that the indications were that the eruption might cease by perhaps 2017, much earlier than previously estimated. The scientists noted that the system was losing pressure quite rapidly and had begun pulsing rather than maintaining a steady flow. The pulsing pattern, it was believed, was a clear sign that the geological forces driving the eruption were subsiding.

By 2016 the mudflow continued with tens of thousands of liters of mud contaminated with heavy metals leaking into rivers.Sidoarjo Mudflow Handling Agency, a government-backed taskforce.

Out of the three hypotheses on the cause of the Lusi mud volcano, the hydro fracturing hypothesis appeared to be the one most debated. On 23 October 2008 a public relations agency in London, acting for one of the oil well"s owners, started to widely publicise what it described as "new facts" on the origin of the mud volcano, which were subsequently presented at an American Association of Petroleum Geologists conference in Cape Town, South Africa on 28 October 2008 (see next section)."At a recent Geological Society of London Conference, we provided authoritative new facts that make it absolutely clear that drilling could not have been the trigger of LUSI." Other verbal reports of the conference in question indicated that the assertion was by no means accepted uncritically, and that when the novel data is published, it is certain to be scrutinized closely.

In 2009, this well data was finally released and published in the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology for the scientific community uses by the geologists and drillers from Energi Mega Persada.

After hearing the (revised) arguments from both sides for the cause of the mud volcano at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists International Convention in Cape Town in October 2008, the vast majority of the conference session audience present (consisting of AAPG oil and gas professionals) voted in favor of the view that the Lusi (Sidoarjo) mudflow had been induced by drilling. On the basis of the arguments presented, 42 out of the 74 scientists came to the conclusion that drilling was entirely responsible, while 13 felt that a combination of drilling and earthquake activity was to blame. Only 3 thought that the earthquake was solely responsible, and 16 geoscientists believed that the evidence was inconclusive.

On the possible trigger of Lusi mud volcano, a group of geologists and drilling engineers from the oil company countered the hydro fracturing hypothesis.

In February 2010, a group led by experts from Britain"s Durham University said the new clues bolstered suspicions the catastrophe was caused by human error. In journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, Professor Richard Davies, of the Centre for Research into Earth Energy Systems (CeREES), said that drillers, looking for gas nearby, had made a series of mistakes. They had overestimated the pressure the well could tolerate, and had not placed protective casing around a section of open well. Then, after failing to find any gas, they hauled the drill out while the hole was extremely unstable. By withdrawing the drill, they exposed the wellhole to a "kick" from pressurized water and gas from surrounding rock formations. The result was a volcano-like inflow that the drillers tried in vain to stop.

In the same Marine and Petroleum Geology journal, the group of geologists and drilling engineers refuted the allegation showing that the "kick" maximum pressure were too low to fracture the rock formation.

The 2010 technical paper in this series of debate presents the first balanced overview on the anatomy of the Lusi mud volcanic system with particular emphasis on the critical uncertainties and their influence on the disaster.

In July 2013, Lupi et al. proposed that the Lusi mud eruption was the result of a natural event, triggered by a distant earthquake at Yogyakarta two days before. As a result, seismic waves were geometrically focused at the Lusi site leading to mud and CO2 generation and a reactivation of the local Watukosek Fault. According to their hypothesis the fault is linked to a deep hydrothermal system that feeds the eruption.

In June 2015, Tingay et al. used geochemical data recorded during the drilling of the Banjar Panji-1 well to test the hypothesis that the Yogyakarta earthquake triggered liquefaction and fault reactivation at the mudflow location.

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Rudolph, Maxwell L.; Manga, Michael; Tingay, Mark; Davies, Richard J. (September 28, 2015). "Influence of seismicity on the Lusi mud eruption" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 42 (18): 2015GL065310. Bibcode:2015GeoRL..42.7436R. doi:hdl:2440/98209. ISSN 1944-8007.

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On May 29, 2006, mud and steaming hot water squirted up in a rice field in Sidoarjo, East Java, marking the birth of the world"s most destructive mud volcano.

The newest landmark in Indonesia is a spectacular disaster. On May 29, 2006, mud and steaming hot water squirted up in a rice field in Sidoarjo, East Java, marking the birth of the world’s most destructive mud volcano. Since then, the volcano, nicknamed Lusi (a contraction of the Indonesian word lumpur, meaning mud, and Sidoarjo), has erupted almost nonstop, engulfing an area more than twice the size of New York City’s Central Park and belching as much as six million cubic feet of muck—enough to fill 800 railroad boxcars—in a single day.

The ongoing disaster has displaced 13,000 families and closed 30 factories and hundreds of small businesses. Dozens of schools and mosques are buried in muck. Rice paddies and sugar cane plantations have been replaced by a brown expanse of cracked mud. A major toll road was inundated, and a gas pipeline exploded after it broke under the weight of Lusi’s outpouring, killing a dozen people.

The land surrounding the volcano’s main vent has started to sink because so much water and mud from beneath the ground have erupted and now weigh it down. New mud bubbles—smaller fissures where mud and gas escape to the surface—continue to pop up across the landscape. The price tag to contain the mess and compensate victims is more than half a billion dollars—and that number is rising.

But now, after more than five years, the mud volcano’s behavior appears to be changing; the nonstop eruptions have given way to more episodic spewing. Geologists are working to determine what that means for the future and how long Lusi will continue to ravage East Java.

“I think it’s good news,” says Richard Davies, a geologist at Durham University in England. “I think the worst is over in terms of the volume of mud coming up.”

Mud volcanoes are common in Indonesia. The humid climate provides an abundance of rain that washes sediments down the country’s numerous volcanic peaks, says Michael Manga, a geologist at the University of California at Berkeley. The wet sediments collect in low-lying areas and are rapidly buried by more and more debris eroding down from the mountains. The overlying sediments compress the lower layers, and pressure builds as the upper layers get thicker and heavier, and the squeezed water has nowhere to go. If a path to the surface opens, the highly pressurized water will shoot up like water from a fire hydrant and bring subsurface sediments with it.

Lusi is an unusual mud volcano for several reasons, including its long eruption period—most mud volcanoes erupt for only a few days at a time. It’s also unique because it’s the first mud volcano that scientists have observed from day one. Oil and natural gas exploration is common in East Java, and researchers have used subsurface data collected from a nearby exploration well to learn more about Lusi’s origins and behavior. It’s “the first time ever you know exactly what the subsurface was like prior to an eruption,” says Manga. “That’s kind of cool.”

But that same well may be to blame for the disaster. The day before the eruption began, the Indonesian company PT Lapindo Brantas removed a drill from the exploration well and experienced a “kick,” or influx of water into the well’s borehole, which cracked the surrounding rock. The next day, just 650 feet away, Lusi erupted.

On May 29, 2006, mud and steaming hot water squirted up in a rice field in Sidoarjo, East Java, marking the birth of the world"s most destructive mud volcano.

Since 2006, the volcano has erupted to almost nonstop, engulfing an area more than twice the size of New York City"s Central Park and belching as much as six million cubic feet of muck in a single day.

The land surrounding the volcano"s main vent has started to sink because so much water and mud from beneath the ground have erupted and now weigh it down.

Mud bubbles—small fissures where mud and gas escape to the surface—continue to pop up across the landscape. The price tag to contain the mess and compensate victims is more than half a billion dollars—and that number is rising.

Many geologists, including Manga and Davies, say drilling unleashed Lusi. Others, including geologist Adriano Mazzini of the University of Oslo, think a magnitude-6.3 earthquake centered 155 miles southwest of Sidoarjo that struck two days before Lusi began reactivated a fault, allowing water and mud to spurt to the surface. In 2008, the issue was put to a vote at an international conference of petroleum geologists; 55 out of 74 attendees agreed drilling played some role in the birth of the mud volcano. Lapindo has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the displaced and to mitigate further damage, according to the non-governmental organization Humanitus, despite its claim of no wrongdoing.

Geologists are now moving on from the debate over what caused the disaster. “The most important question isn’t who’s responsible but when is the eruption going to end,” Manga says. “It’s a billion-dollar question.”

This year, two research teams considered the question—and came to different conclusions. Manga and his colleagues reported in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters that there is a 50 percent chance Lusi will last more than 41 years and a 33 percent chance it will last more than 84 years. A team led by Davies had a slightly more optimistic outlook: It suggested in the Journal of the Geological Society of London that the mud volcano’s most likely total life span is 26 years.

In either case, more territory will be swallowed by mud. Further geological analyses might help Indonesian officials better manage the disaster and explain how the recent slowdown in Lusi’s eruptions fits in with the predictions.

The different results emerge from the way the teams modeled Lusi’s plumbing and driving forces. Davies’ team says the water propelling the eruption comes from a 15-million-year-old layer of rock that sits at least 2,000 feet beneath the erupting mud. Twenty-six years, Davies says, is an estimate of how long it will take for the water pressure to return to normal.

Manga’s team says water within the mud layer itself is fueling the eruption. “If we’re right, it’s not typical of most mud volcanoes,” Manga says. Lusi is acting like a can of fizzy soda, he says, with bubbles of carbon dioxide and methane helping bring mud to the surface.

The mud volcano’s recent changes in activity may signal that the mechanism driving the eruption has changed, Davies says, but it’s not yet clear what they mean for the long-term outlook.

This year, scientists who study the eruption met in Indonesia for a conference and to observe the volcano. Instead of belching continuously, Lusi seemed to be “pulsing” every few minutes, Davies says. “It’s a bit like Old Faithful.” It’s also spewing less mud, adds Max Rudolph, a graduate student at UC-Berkeley. At a rate of about 530,000 cubic feet per day, he says, “the current eruption rate is [down by] a factor of 10 or more from its peak in 2006.”

Does this mean Lusi is quieting down for good, or just taking a break before ramping up again? Nobody knows for sure. It “made me realize we need to constantly re-evaluate the longevity estimates,” Davies says.

Getting a good estimate of Lusi’s life span is one reason why Humanitus, an education and community development organization based in Australia, organized the conference. After watching a documentary about the mud volcano, Humanitus Executive Director Jeffrey Richards says, he realized that “no one seemed to be looking at the future.” The controversy over the eruption’s cause was overshadowing the disaster, he says. “It has made it difficult for the government to get any sort of international assistance, which is normally the case for any disaster on that scale.”

Ironically, Lusi may offer ways to fix the area’s damaged economy. Businesses could use the heap of mud to make bricks and other construction materials, Richards says, and the mud volcano could even become a tourist destination. After years of coping with the hardships created by the disaster, the people of Sidoarjo “need some good positives to start coming out of this,” Richards says. As he and other scientists at the conference suggest, “It’s time to look at Lusi as a positive for this region.”

On May 29, 2006, a scalding mud volcano began erupting in a densely populated area in eastern Java, Indonesia. In the months that followed, the Sidoarjo mud flow (also known as the Lapindo mud flow, or Lusi) showed no signs of slowing, and mitigation efforts such as dropping chains of concrete balls down the crater proved ineffective. By September 2006, the mud had breached some early containment walls and sprawled across a nearby toll road. The mud’s footprint continued growing in February 2007. By June 2008, the massive mud lake spawned by this eruption had smothered a dozen villages and displaced some 30,000 residents.

Despite its destructive history, however, the Sidoarjo mud flow appeared contained by levees in November 2008. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired these images on November 11, 2008, (top) and August 24, 2004 (bottom). In these false-color images, red indicates vegetation, pale blue and green indicate bare ground and/or fallow fields, and black indicates water. The mud from the volcano appears charcoal gray.

In the image acquired in August 2004, almost two years before the eruption started, crops appear as a patchwork of red and pale blue or pale green. Between the agricultural fields, settlements resemble multicolored grains of sand. In the east, shrimp farms vaguely mimic the patterns of the agricultural fields, but water colors them black.

In the image acquired in November 2008, more than two years after the eruption began, the mud volcano dominates the scene. A network of levees around the volcano contains most of the mud. On the eastern side of the levee network, the contained material appears deep blue or green, suggesting that these sections hold water that partially separated from the mud. A channel on the southern end of the containment structure funnels volcanic mud into the Kali Porong. (Indonesia’ president authorized pumping the volcanic mud into this river to carry the mud to the sea.) The tiny white puff near the center of the containment network results from volcanic steam at the mud’s primary eruption center. This patch of vapor testifies to the volcano’s continued activity. Although it was contained at the time this image was acquired, the mud still had the potential to breach its new containment structure.

From the time the eruption occurred, geologists debated the cause of the eruption. Some geologists pointed to a minor earthquake in the region. In June 2008, however, a report released by British, American, Indonesian, and Australian scientists concluded that the volcano was not a natural disaster, but the result of oil and gas drilling. At the time the report was released, the volcano was producing roughly 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet) of mud per day— enough to fill 53 Olympic swimming pools.

Plumlee, G.S., Casadevall, T.J., Wibowo, H.T., Rosenbauer, R.J., Johnson, C.A., Breit, G.N., Lowers, H.A., Wolf, R.E., Hageman, P.L., Goldstein, H., Anthony, M.W., Berry, C.J., Fey, D.L.,, Meeker, G.P., and Morman, S.A. (2008). Preliminary analytical results for a mud sample collected from the LUSI mud volcano, Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1019.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data from NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott, based on interpretation by Geoffrey S. Plumlee, U.S. Geological Survey Crustal Imaging and Characterization Team.

RM2D1DXH7–An aerial view shows houses flooded with mud in Sidoarjo, in Indonesia"s East Java province on April 14, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near provincial capital Surabaya. White smoke is seen rising from the site of the drilling accident. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RF2H97Y1W–Lake of dry mud formed from a mud volcano eruption in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Clouds in blue sky. Natural disaster in oil and gas industry and geology.

RM2D2NP02–Indonesian Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie speaks to foreign journalists in Jakarta August 13, 2008. Bakrie, Indonesia"s richest man, said on Wednesday a firm linked to his family was not responsible for a massive mud disaster in East Java, but would still pay compensation, as promised, to those affected. The cause of the Sidoarjo mud volcano, which has displaced more than 50,000 people, has been a matter of dispute. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8BAG–Mud lake environmental disaster which developed after drilling incident with volcano in background, Porong Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, East Java, Indones

RMD8H7M4–May 29, 2013 - Sidoarjo, Indonesia - People lay in the mud along the retaining dike in protest and to commemorate the tragedy. The mud is the result of an erupting volcano that has been in eruption since May 2006. It is the biggest mud volcano in the world, created by the blowout of a natural gas well drilled by PT Lapindo Brantas. (Credit Image: © A"At/Sijori Images/ZUMAPRESS.com)

RM2HB12T4–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - A escavator seen at the Lapindo volcanic mudflow area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RF2H97XCT–Lake of dry mud formed from mud volcano eruption with dead plant in foreground in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Natural disaster in oil and gas industry.

RM2D192C9–Indonesian Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie speaks to foreign journalists in Jakarta August 13, 2008. Bakrie, Indonesia"s richest man, said on Wednesday a firm linked to his family was not responsible for a massive mud disaster in East Java, but would still pay compensation, as promised, to those affected. The cause of the Sidoarjo mud volcano, which has displaced more than 50,000 people, has been a matter of dispute. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8D7A–Dried mud in mud lake environmental disaster and volcano which developed after drilling incident, Porong Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

RM2HB12ND–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - The Lapindo volcanic mudflow area seen in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RF2H97JJR–Lake of dry mud formed from a mud volcano eruption in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Clouds in blue sky. Natural disaster in oil and gas industry. No people.

RM2E6WDPH–Indonesian Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie speaks to foreign journalists in Jakarta August 13, 2008. Bakrie, Indonesia"s richest man, said on Wednesday a firm linked to his family was not responsible for a massive mud disaster in East Java, but would still pay compensation, as promised, to those affected. The cause of the Sidoarjo mud volcano, which has displaced more than 50,000 people, has been a matter of dispute. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8KF4–Disaster tourists paying to visit mudflow environmental disaster at levee seperating village and mud lake which developed after drilling well

RM2E7XWD3–Indonesian engineers drop clusters of chained concrete balls into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo, East Java province on March 1, 2007 to reduce the torrent of sludge that has displaced some 15,000 people. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2E7B9YX–Indonesians block a railway in Sidoarjo, East Java on February 22, 2007. More than 1,000 Indonesians displaced by a mud volcano on Java island blocked a main road and a railway on Thursday to demand cash compensation for their submerged homes. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2HB12NF–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - Gras seen shadows the volcanic mudflow area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RM2EJ8K6M–Disaster tourists visiting mudflow disaster levee crossing small bridge to climb levee seperating village and mud lake environmental disaster

RM2D1Y30W–Indonesians block a railway in Sidoarjo, East Java on February 22, 2007. More than 1,000 Indonesians displaced by a mud volcano on Java island blocked a main road and a railway on Thursday to demand cash compensation for their submerged homes. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D22TTW–Residents carry a banner during a protest at a site in Sidoarjo May 29, 2007. Around 2,000 Indonesians whose homes have been submerged by a gushing mud volcano prayed for relief from the torrent on Tuesday on the first anniversary of a disaster that shows no sign of abating. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2HB12TA–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - The bird steps seen at the Lapindo volcanic mudflow area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RM2D172A2–An aerial view shows houses flooded with mud in Sidoarjo, Indonesia"s East Java province, April 20, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near provincial capital Surabaya. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D2RC67–Villagers collects roof tiles near their houses in mud-flooded Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near the provincial capital Surabaya, April 16, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May last year when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2E6T6AJ–An aerial view shows houses flooded with mud in Sidoarjo, in Indonesia"s East Java province April 14, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near provincial capital Surabaya. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D32W7W–Villagers prepare their offering for a ritual before prayers at the site of a "mud volcano" that has displaced about 15,000 people in Sidoarjo March 20, 2007. A catastrophic mudflow that has swamped villages on Indonesia"s Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, raising hopes that efforts to plug the torrent are working at last, a scientist said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D1AA4G–An aerial view shows the crater of a "mud volcano" surrounded by flooded houses in Sidoarjo, Indonesia"s East Java province, April 20, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near provincial capital Surabaya. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8C3M–Dried mud in mud lake environmental disaster and which developed after drilling incident with volcano in background, Porong Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, E

RM2HB12R6–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - The Lapindo volcanic mudflow area seen in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RM2E6PPCX–An aerial view shows the crater of a "mud volcano" surrounded by flooded houses in Sidoarjo, Indonesia"s East Java province, April 20, 2007. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories have been submerged and 15,000 people displaced since May when the mud began flowing out of a "mud volcano" following an oil-drilling accident in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb near provincial capital Surabaya. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D18X3R–Indonesian engineers work to drop clusters of chained concrete balls into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo in East Java province March 20, 2007 to reduce a torrent of sludge that has displaced about 15,000 people. A catastrophic mudflow that has swamped villages on Indonesia"s Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, raising hopes that efforts to plug the torrent are working at last, a scientist said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8JNC–Refugee camp next to abandoned village following flooding by mud lake environmental disaster which developed after drilling incident, Porong Sidoarjo,

RM2HB12T8–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - The debris home from the past settlement seen burried beside the community protest flag at the Lapindo volcanic mudflow disaster area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on Februa

RM2D2F4E5–Indonesian engineers work to drop clusters of chained concrete balls into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo in East Java province March 20, 2007 to reduce a torrent of sludge that has displaced about 15,000 people. A catastrophic mudflow that has swamped villages on Indonesia"s Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, raising hopes that efforts to plug the torrent are working at last, a scientist said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ8D22–Do not swim sign in Indonesian in mud lake environmental disaster which developed after drilling incident, Porong Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, East Java,

RM2HB12PM–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - Arjuno volcano seen from the Lapindo volcanic mudflow area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sutanta Aditya/ABACAPRESS.COM

RM2D25796–Indonesian engineers work to drop clusters of chained concrete balls into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo in East Java province March 20, 2007 to reduce a torrent of sludge that has displaced about 15,000 people. A catastrophic mudflow that has swamped villages on Indonesia"s Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, raising hopes that efforts to plug the torrent are working at last, a scientist said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2EJ89R1–Top of mosque barely visible in mud lake environmental disaster which developed after drilling incident, Porong Sidoarjo, near Surabaya, East Java, In

RM2HB12TC–Photo dated October 19, 2016 - The debris home school from the past settlement seen burried amid the Lapindo volcanic mudflow disaster area in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia. Since May 29, 2006 until now, as 1,143.3 hectares area land has changes be the natural territory of the world"s largest mud volcano were belches water, oil, methane gas and mud everytime. The geological activity is a contributor to methane gas emissions amount as the largest natural gas manifestation on earth, based on the study report published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, 2021. Photo by Sut

RM2D21BW0–Indonesian engineers work to drop clusters of chained concrete balls into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo in East Java province March 20, 2007 to reduce the torrent of sludge that has displaced about 15,000 people. A catastrophic mudflow that has swamped villages on Indonesia"s Java island halted briefly for the first time in 10 months, raising hopes that efforts to plug the torrent are working at last, a scientist said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas (INDONESIA)

RM2D1DX53–Concrete balls are prepared before they are dropped into a mud volcano in Sidoarjo, east Java pr