Oil Drilling, Not Earthquake, Caused Deadly Java Mud Volcano

Two years ago, a mud volcano in East Java, Indonesia caused millions of dollars worth of damage and displaced more than 30,000 people. That mud volcano – which is still spewing huge volumes of mud today – has found to have been caused by oil drilling, rather than an earthquake as was originally thought. The video below shows the mud flow, which reaches volumes of 100,000 cubic meters per day – enough to fill 53 Olympic-size swimming pools.

From the Environmental News Network:

Graduate student Maria Brumm and Prof Michael Manga of University of California, Berkeley undertook a systematic study to test the claims that the eruption was caused by this earthquake. They found that none of the ways earthquakes trigger eruptions could have played a role at Lusi.

Prof Michael Manga, of University of California, Berkeley, said: “We have known for hundreds of years that earthquakes can trigger eruptions. In this case, the earthquake was simply too small and too far away.”

The new report concludes the effect of the earthquake was minimal because the change in pressure underground due to the earthquake would have been tiny. Instead, scientists are “99 per cent” certain drilling operations were to blame.

Prof Davies, of Durham University’s Centre for Research into Earth Energy Systems (CeREES) explained: “We show that the day before the mud volcano started there was a huge ”˜kick’ in the well, which is an influx of fluid and gas into the wellbore. We show that after the kick the pressure in the well went beyond a critical level.”

Naturally, the oil company denied that their drilling was responsible for the environmental disaster.

The Java mud volcano is the largest in the world, and is beginning to show signs of potentially catastrophic collapse which could sag the vent area by up to 150 meters in the next decade. Mud volcanoes usually occur naturally, caused by geo-excreted liquids and gases.

Link [ENN] + [YouTube] + [Wikipedia]

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