Gas Drilling Effects

Gas drilling on the Indonesian of java has [blank] a "mud volcano" that has killed 13 people and may render four square miles (ten square kilometers) of countryside uninhabitable for years. In a report released on January 23, a team of British researchers says the deadly [blank] began when an explratory gas well punched through a layer of rock 9300 feet (2800 meters) below the surface, [blank] hot, high-pressure water to [blank] . The water [blank] mud to the surface, where it has [blank] across a region 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in diameter in the eight months since the eruption began. The mud volcano is similar to a gusher or blowout, which occurs in oil drilling [blank] oil or gas squirts to the surface, the team says. This upwelling, however, spews out a volume of mud equivalent to a dozen Olympic swimming pools each day. Although the eruption isn't as violent as a conventional volcano, more than a dozen people died when a natural gas pipeline ruptured. The research team, [blank] published their findings in the February issue of GSA Today, also estimates that the volcano, called Lusi, will leave more than 11,000 people permanently displaced.