May 29th to September 2006
Possibly owing to gas drilling on the Indonesian island of Java, a "mud volcano" has eveloped. and
rendered four square miles (ten square kilometers) of countryside uninhabitable for years.

A team of British researchers says the deadly upwelling began when an exploratory gas well punched through
a layer of rock 9,300 feet (2,800 meters) below the surface, allowing hot, high-pressure water to escape.

The water carried mud to the surface, where it has spread across a region 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in diameter
in the eight months since the eruption began. Although the eruption isn't as violent as a conventional volcano,
more than a dozen people died when a natural gas pipeline ruptured.

An unusual feature of the Indonesian eruption is that it involves a very thin, liquid mud.
That is unfortunate, because the thin mud could flow for long distances, increasing the devastation.

The mud is apparently being eroded out from deep underground, creating a cavern. That means that the
land around the volcano might collapse to form a crater.
From an article by Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News

It was on May 29th, 2006 that the first residents first witnessed stinking, hot mud shooting from the earth
180 meters (590 feet) from the drilling rig of the Lapindo company.

What began as a stinking puddle of mud soon turned into a pond, the pond turned into a lake and the lake
turned into a small inland sea. Despite the local residents' efforts to protect themselves and their homes with sandbags, sludge levels continued to rise. One night the hot mud crept into nearby houses for the first time.

In June, the volcano spit out an average of 5,000 cubic meters (178,571 cubic feet) of mud a day --
enough to fill 150 garbage trucks.
In July, that amount increased five-fold, to a daily discharge volume of about 25,000 cubic meters
In August, daily production jumped to 50,000 cubic meters (about 1.8 million cubic feet).
By September, the mud hole's average daily output amounted to 125,000 cubic meters
(4.5 million cubic feet), enough to transform a soccer field into a pool of mud 17 meters (56 feet) deep.

October 2006
So far, refugees have had enough time to take along their most valuable possessions. But what they were
forced to leave behind is even more telling, as toys, shoes, mattresses and canned goods float on the
surface of the dense liquid. The list of victims has not included any human lives, only 1,605 chickens,
30 goats and 2 dairy cows.

Meanwhile, workers have begun installing steel pipes to pump water and mud from the many catchment basins.
Workers are dredging a canal between one of the largest basins and the nearby Porong River, as part of a plan to
divert new mud into the river and into the ocean 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. But because the river has very
little slope, experts fear that it could quickly silt up and flood its banks.
Environmentalists are opposed to the plan because the flood of sediment could endanger mangroves, fish and fishermen.
From an article in Der Spegel

An Indonesian court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit brought by environmentalists against an energy company
alleged to have caused a mud volcano that has displaced thousands in East Java province. The South Jakarta district
court ruled that the mudflow in Sidoarjo district was a "natural disaster", and not caused by gas drilling by Lapindo Brantas as alleged by Friends of the Earth Indonesia.

January 4th, 2008
The mud volcano that forced more than 15,000 people to abandon their homes on the Indonesian island of Java
in 2006 has breached the barriers built to contain it, causing further damage.

It was on Thursday, January 3rd, when hot, foul-smelling mud began to flow into the area, covering the nearby
railway tracks and a main road. At least 10 vehicles were buried by one-metre deep mud.

The newly affected area is about 20 km from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city. But thousands of homes and
factories in an area four times the size of Monaco have been submerged by the hot mud since it first started to erupt.
(Reuters)

January 5th, 2008
135 residents living near a mud volcano that has been spewing geiser-like eruptions of hot, black sludge since mid-2006
were forced to flee after heavy rain caused dams surrounding the disaster-zone to breach.

Railway tracks and a major road near Porong, a village in East Java province, were partially submerged before the
watery mud receded.

The government has made several attempts to contain or stop the mud, but none has been successful.
Inquirer Net