Indonesian mud volcano possibly caused by drilling fills 50 Olympic sized swimming pools every day

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211211442.htm

The Lusi volcano, which first erupted on May 29, 2006, in the Porong sub-district of Sidoarjo, close to Indonesia's second city of Surabaya, East Java, now covers seven square kilometers -- nearly three square miles and is 20 meters (65 feet) thick. The mud flow has razed four villages and 25 factories. Thirteen people have died as a result of a rupture in a natural gas pipeline underneath one of the holding dams. The Lusi crater has been oozing enough mud to fill 50 Olympic size swimming pools every day. All efforts to stem the mud flow have failed, including the construction of dams, levees, drainage channels, and even plugging the crater with concrete balls. Lusi may continue to erupt for decades, scientists believe.


The group of scientists has identified five critical drilling errors as the causes of the Lusi mud volcano eruption:

having a significant open hole section with no protective casing
overestimating the pressure the well could tolerate
after complete loss of returns, the decision to pull the drill string out of an extremely unstable hole
pulling the bit out of the hole while losses were occurring
not identifying the kick more rapidly

This is what happens when men think they can bore anywhere into anything, not know exactly what they are doing, and hope and pray for the best.

[Gin]

1. wow...I don't recall reading about this...was the vulcano there already

and then got activated by the drilling? or was it created as a result of the mud flow?..what a mess!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. If you google "Indonesian mud volcano" you can find lots of stories about it

Did you read the one I linked? Initially the drilling company was maintaining that it was just an awful coincidence about the mud volcano happening right near their gas drilling and blamed it on an earthquake. Now more and more scientists are coming forward and saying it was caused by the drilling.

I have had a weird fascination with the story since it happened, not realizing that it's a horrible foreshadowing of Deepwater Horizon.

The scary part is now I am realizing what fractures in the seabed, if they exist, could really mean.