Gas Drilling

Gas drilling on the Indonesian of java has triggered 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 upwelling began when an exploratory gas well punched through a layer of rock 9300 feet (2800 meters) below the surface, allowing hot, high-pressure water to escape . The water carried the mud to the surface, where it has spread 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 when oil or gas squirt 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, who published their findings in the February issue of GSA Today, also estimate that the volcano, called Lusi, will leave more than 11,000 people permanently displaced.