Finally, some decision on the mud volcano issue! A majority of top geologists voted that the cause of mud volcano in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia was caused by the Lapindo Brantas drilling for gas and oil. The decision was taken among 74 geologists in Cape Town, South Africa at a conference of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which ran from October 26-29. The topic of debate Lusi, the name of Indonesian mud volcano which erupted in May 2006, has triggered a social and environmental disaster. The volcano has swamped 12 villages and displaced around 30,000 people and continues to spew boiling mud at a rate sufficient to fill 53 Olympic swimming pools each day.

There were four varying hypotheses, including University Durham’s professor of geology, Richard Davies. Forty-two scientists voted in favour of Davies’ argument that the cause lay with a gas exploration well, Banjar-Panji-1, that was being drilled in the area by oil and gas company Lapindo Brantas, it said. Three scientists say the blame lies with an earthquake two days earlier in Yogyakarta, 280 kilometres away, which has always become the defensive reason of Lapindo Brantas, the company that tarted the drilling. Sixteen said the evidence was inconclusive, while 13 believed that a combination of quake and drilling was to blame.

Whatever the decision is, the cause is not fully clear because not everybody agree on one hypothese. At least the majority believe that the mud volcano was triggered by the drilling. I hope this can shed some light on the case!

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