ReliefWeb, 19 Mar 2007
Mudflow in Indonesia stops for 35 minutes
Source: Xinhua News Agency
JAKARTA, Mar 19, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Mudflow in Sidoarjo regency, in
Indonesia's East Java province, stopped for 35 minutes Monday as engineers had
dropped thousands of concrete balls into the mouth of mud volcano.
It was a good indication over the effort to stop the mud flow, which have taken place
since May last year, Haryo Bagus Handoko, an engineer who lead the concrete ball
droppings, was quoted as saying.
But Bagus added that his team did not expect that the mudflow would stop
permanently in the near future because the mud volcano could not be suddenly closed
to avoid great volcanic explosion.
"We expect that the mudflow would stop within next one or two months," he was
quoted by Elshinta news radio as saying.
The gaping hole in the ground has spit out a large-scale torrent of hot, black mud,
swallowing thousands of homes outside Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya
and attracting amazed geologists from around the world.
Most of experts said the flow is unstoppable. But Indonesian experts refuse to listen
and have recently begun dropping thousands of concrete balls into the mouth of the
mud volcano.
Twelve villages and 20 factories have been swallowed, with mud- caked roofs and the
lamppost tops the only reminders of what once were there.
Some scientists suggest the rupture was triggered by improper drilling at a nearby
natural gas site. Other research points to a major earthquake two days before the
mud first appeared in a rice field in May 2006.
The ball-dropping operation, which began last month, follows several failed attempts to
contain or stop the mud. |
