Posted on 03/10/2007 5:53:52 PM PST by melt
PORONG, Indonesia -- For nine months, a gaping hole in the ground has spit out a torrent of hot, black mud, swallowing thousands of houses outside Indonesia's second-largest city and attracting amazed geologists from around the world.
Most say the flow is unstoppable, but Indonesian specialists refuse to listen, and they have recently begun carrying out a scheme straight from a Hollywood movie: dropping nearly 1,500 concrete balls into the mouth of the mud volcano.
"We know lots of people think this is a crazy idea," said Satria Bijaksana, a professor and one of three geologists behind the $130 million plan aimed at reducing the spew of the sludge by as much as 70 percent. "But we think it will work."
Mud volcanoes are fairly common along volatile tectonic belts and in areas rich in oil and natural gas like Indonesia.
But the eruption just outside the city of Surabaya is exceptional because of the sheer volume of mud that has been surging each day from the hole -- enough to fill 50 Olympic-size swimming pools. Twelve villages and 20 factories have been swallowed, with mud-caked roofs and the tops of lamp posts as the only reminders of what once was 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 last May .
The ball-dropping operation, which began last month, follows several failed attempts to contain or stop the mud.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
"Darwin Award Nominees" Alert!
Constipating a volcano is an interesting idea, but its implementation is best watched from a distance.
Fiber, more fiber. Try ground up corn cobs. Stops leaks in radiators for a while. (And, of course, screws up your water pump.)
pepto-bismol.
One things for sure--you don't want to be stuck in the "lava"tory when all hell lets loose. : )
Allah is sending a message to the Muslims in Indonesia.....
They're not listening...
More "moon rocks" will soon come to Earth....to get their attention.
Semper Fi
Uh, yeah.
"One things for sure--you don't want to be stuck in the "lava"tory when all hell lets loose.
Nope. And if you survive the "Big splat" then there is the aftermath...no fun cleaning off all those out of the way places on, around, and under the seat.
Takes brass ones to drop the concrete ones in.
"Twelve villages and 20 factories have been swallowed..."
Yikes!
No good can come of this.
Missed that part.
Maybe we should send them some real brass balls--- like Hillary , for instance.
They might have better luck trying to stop the next big earthquake.
Idiots.
Good idea. Drop her into the volcano. Wasn't something similar done in the Classic Antiquity? Etna volcano, IIRC, and they tossed somebody in.
Why don't they just dig a channel to direct the flow of mud away from homes and businesses?
What a great title fcr a porn DVD!
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