Foreign scientists to study Indonesia's Lapindo Sidoarjo mudflow

Foreign scientists to study Indonesia's Lapindo Sidoarjo mudflow

2011-05-27 05:03:31 GMT+7 (ICT)

SURABAYA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- A team of foreign scientists will be traveling to Indonesia's East Java province in order to observe the Lapindo mudflow that began five years ago in Sidoarjo, local media reported Thursday.

The team of scientists from Humanitus, which includes people from Germany and the United Kingdom, will be observing the conditions of the Lapindo mudflow from a close quarters, studying the hot mud that has been surging nonstop from a hole in the ground during the past five years, Humanitus executive director Jeffrey Richard told Kompas.

The Lapindo Sidoarjo mudflow began in May 2006 in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java, when oil and gas exploration company PT Lapindo Brantas created a blowout of a natural gas well during a drilling operation near the Banjar Panji I well. Company officials, however, argue a distant earthquake caused the mudflow.

At one moment, the mud volcano, which is the world's largest, was spewing out 180,000 cubic meters (600,000 cubic feet) of mud per day, and even though it has been relatively contained to 100,000 cubic meters (328,000 cubic feet) per day with the use of levees since October 2008, it is expected to continue pouring out mud for the next 25 to 30 years.

"We have assembled scientists from several countries who will try to determine what had created the continuing mudflow considered to be the biggest of its kind in the world," Jeffrey said, explaining that each member of the observation team would carry out their individual study and later meet to discuss their findings.

British geologist Richard Davies, who has stated to be "99 percent sure" the mudflow was caused by company drilling, said the team of scientists will also be studying possible impacts of the mudflow in the future.

More than 13,000 families have been directly affected by the mudflow, which has covered much of the surrounding towns and villages. New mudflow spots were discovered around one year ago, as the constant pouring has affected the area's railway and highway networks.

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