Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

I’m following with great interest, the saga of the Indonesian mud volcano called Lusi that erupted near Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia in May of 2006.  Mud volcanoes are not unheard of.  There are at least 2,000 worldwide including one in the Santa Barbara Channel near Redondo Beach California.  But the mud volcano in Indonesia may be one of the few caused by humans.

Naturally occurring mud volcanoes happen when deeply buried sediment is liquefied and squirts back to the surface, usually accompanied by water or gases of various kinds.  One large mud volcano off the coast of Venezuela creates large islands that are washed away by the tides to form anew from the mud bubbling from the Earth’s interior.  The largest mud volcanoes are six miles across and 2,000 feet tall.
The viscosity of mud volcanoes is wildly variable.  Some look like volcanoes with thick mud flowing from a raised central crater, while others simply look like slowly growing mounds of dirt that are squeezed out of a crack like toothpaste.  Others erupt mud that is much thinner and this describes what’s flowing out of the ground in Indonesia.  Lusi’s mud is about 70% water and instead of mounding up, is flowing disastrously over the countryside.  Since Lusi erupted in May 2006, the soupy mud has covered four square miles to a depth of 16 feet in some places, submerged parts of four villages and displaced about 25,000 people.

When the flow started last May, Lusi was erupting about a quarter of a million cubic feet of mud every single day.  Now, however, the rate has increased to over 5 million cubic feet a day and it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.  In addition, scientists predict that if the underlying mud is drained, the land above it will begin to sag and there may be a dramatic collapse into the empty hole left behind.

So, what caused Lusi?  Lusi erupted from a gas well that was operated by Lapindo Brantas, Inc. one of Indonesia’s biggest oil companies.  And we have two interesting opinions about what caused that eruption.  On the one hand, we have a statement from Indonesia's coordinating minister for social welfare, Aburizal Bakrie.  He says the volcano is a "natural disaster" unrelated to the drilling activities.  Mr. Bakrie stated, "It is not because of the Lapindo drill case but it is because of the quake."  He was referring to an earthquake that occurred two days before the Lusi eruption near the ancient city of Yogyakarta that killed around 6,000 people.

Now that ‘drill case’ he mentions is in response to a finding made by a team led by British scientist Richard Davies, a professor at the University of Durham's Center for Research into Earth Energy Systems in northeastern England.

That study reported that the kind of drilling done by Lapindo in the geographical regions into which they drilled requires the use of steel casing to support the borehole, to protect against the pressure of fluids such as water, oil or gas. 

Mr. Davies reported in a press release; "In the case of Lusi, a pressured limestone rock containing water -- a water aquifer -- was drilled while the lower part of the borehole was exposed and not protected by casing.  As a result, rocks fractured and a mix of mud and water worked its way to the surface. Our research brings us to the conclusion that the incident was most probably the result of drilling."

So was it drilling or was it the earthquake?  Does it make a difference when I tell you that Mr. Aburizal Bakrie, whose job it is to be concerned about social welfare, is one of the wealthiest men in Indonesia and his family firm controls Lapindo Brantas?  Apparently that fact made a difference to the president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who ordered Lapindo to pay 3.8 trillion rupiah ($421 million) in compensation and costs related to the mudflow.

It also apparently made a difference to the protesters who dumped a truckload of Lusi mud outside the office of State Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie last September.  Police did not try to stop the protesters from pouring about half a ton of mud on the sidewalk outside the ministry.  Some of the demonstrators carried a banner saying, "Stop your mud Mr. Bakrie or your mud will stop you!"  It is apparent to me that there are Indonesians who do not believe that Mr. Bakrie has the People’s Welfare in his heart. 

So, anyway, let’s leave the squabble about who’s responsible behind and move on to what we intend to do about it.  And that’s where it really gets interesting.  Apparently we tried to stuff concrete down the hole and got no joy whatsoever.  Lapindo Brantas dug three shafts alongside the hole and pumped enough concrete in them to build several new subdivisions of concrete houses with absolutely no effect.
Lapindo has also paid for an ever-expanding network of earthen dams to contain the mud, but many people here fear the resulting slimy ponds will overflow during the upcoming rainy season.

The government recently gave permission to dump the mud into the sea via a river.  But it remains to be seen whether that will get rid of the sludge faster than it keeps pouring out of the hole.  That plan also has met deep opposition from environmentalists, who fear it might destroy the marine ecosystem. And in the latest attempt to stem the flow, three earth scientists at the Bandung Institute of Technology have hatched a plan to drop 1,000 chains, each with four concrete balls that weigh roughly 700 pounds, into the neck of the mud volcano.

AP photo

The aim is not to plug the hole, which could divert the pressure elsewhere, but to slow the flow by restricting the size of the conduit.  In the end, the same volume of mud will probably be pumped out but the rate will slow down.  The innovators claim the flow rate should fall by 75%, giving Lapindo Brantas more time to reinforce embankments, channel the mud to the river and take other measures to spare the villages.

I personally think that the Indonesians might want to hear a story told to me by my Australian e-mail buddy when I went to visit her and we took a little drive along the southern Australian coast.  We stopped by the site of one of the largest blowholes in Australia.  It’s quite a tourist attraction and I enjoyed the sight of the water fountaining up to great heights.

But my friend told me that the blowhole’s current appearance was nothing compared to what it used to be.  She said that the fountain was originally much taller and more impressive although the volume was less.  “So” I said, “what happened?”

And she told me the tale of the cattle rancher who lived downwind from the blowhole and grew tired of the salt spray contaminating his fields and causing his valuable grass to die.  So, he decided to fix it.  He filled the hole with concrete.

This worked just fine and the grass because lush and green.  The tourist trade was a little upset, but there were other blowholes although none of them were as big and impressive.  And then one day, there was a major storm. My friend said they found the concrete plug about a mile inland along with several large boulders and a couple of very flat cows.  The hole’s too big to plug with concrete now and perhaps the rancher has learned his lesson.  Here’s hoping the long-suffering people of Indonesia don’t learn a similar lesson. But you don’t have to worry about them too much because Lapindo Brantas has come up with the ultimate solution for them.  The company is funding a soap opera called “Digging a Hole, Filling a Hole.”  Set amidst the misery of the mud, “Digging …” is a love story that reportedly shows the virtues of patience – something in short supply these days.  Reality TV.  That should solve ALL their problems!

Before and After pictures of the Lusi area of Indonesia