A mud volcano which has caused millions of dollars worth of damage was caused by the drilling of a gas exploration well, an international team of scientists has concluded. The two-year old mud volcano, Lusi, is still spewing huge volumes of mud and has displaced more than 30,000 people.
The most detailed scientific analysis to date disproves the theory that an earthquake that happened two-days before the mud volcano erupted in East Java, Indonesia, was potentially to blame.
The report by British, American and Indonesian and Australian scientists is published this week in the academic journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. It outlines and analyses a detailed record of operational incidents on the drilling of a gas exploration well, Banjar-Panji-1*.
Lead author, Prof Richard Davies of Durham University, UK, published research in January 2007 which argued the drilling was most likely to blame for the eruption of the 'Lusi' mud volcano on May 29 2006.
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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Report_Confirms_Drilling_Not_Earthquake_Caused_Java_Mud_Volcano_999.html