Sidoarjo mud volcano

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The mud volcano on July 21, 2006
Location of the Sidoarjo district in Java
Satellite image in false colors from October 20, 2009
Satellite images in false colors from September 3, 2006 (above) and March 11, 2005 (below) before the eruption

The mud volcano Sidoarjo ( Malay Lumpur Sidoarjo , abbreviated Lusi ) is located on the Indonesian island of Java , about twenty kilometers south of Surabaya . He has been continuously active since May 2006.

outbreak

On May 29, 2006, a volcanic mud blowout near an oil well occurred in East Java, in the ( kecamatan ) district of the city of Sidoarjo . The mud, which shot up to 50 meters in height, reached temperatures averaging 100 ° C. In addition, various gases - including methane and hydrogen sulfide - were released.

The eruption, which has continued so far, has now formed a crater 60 meters in diameter and an ejection mound 15 meters high. Based on measurements, researchers assume that the volcano will spit a lot of mud until 2037 and that nothing can be done about it.

Theories about its origins

There are two different theories about the origin of the exit points.

Cause earthquake

At the center of this theory is a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that shook the area around Yogyakarta on May 27, 2006 shortly before 6 a.m. local time . This tectonic event is said to have activated a pre-existing weak zone in the rock layers and changed the tension in the earth's interior. This is said to have created a pressurized clay / water gas mixture, which paved its way up.

Connection with a drilling

This theory assumes that a mistake has been made in an oil well. The Indonesian oil company Lapindo Brantas drilled under the guidance of the planning Ingenieures Bambang Istadi on 8 March 2006 near Sidoarjo in a hydrocarbon - Exploration a new oil source. This was baptized with the name Banjar Panji 1 (short BPJ-1 ). On the basis of new calculations it was assumed that a limestone layer would be encountered at a depth of 2591 meters .

But this was not the case. Finally, on May 28th, at a depth of 2,834 meters, there was a “kick” , an uncontrolled invasion of an unknown fluid into the borehole. The rinse was lost. This is usually only the case with large pressure differences. It was no longer possible to continue drilling, so the command to pull out the drill bit was given. However, it got stuck at a depth of 1,293 meters. The borehole was then sealed at a depth of 643 meters.

The police started their first investigations in mid-June. 27 witnesses were interviewed, including six members of PT Lapindo's management, independent environmental experts and geologists. Imam Agustino of Lapindo said that the mud does not come out of the borehole directly, but in other places 150 to 500 meters away. In addition to the main crater, there are about 180 openings from which mud emerges.

Both theories are the subject of intense research. In 2015, Mark Tingay from the University of Adelaide and an international team of geologists analyzed relevant data - for example gas emissions before and after the earthquake - and found no evidence of a connection between the quake and the blow-out. So the drilling must be the cause.

consequences

Houses lost in the floods of mud near Sidoarjo

The mud eruptions have far-reaching consequences for the population. By December 2006, over 13,000 people had to be evacuated from the region . The mud flooded streets and fields over an area of ​​seven square kilometers (as of June 2008) and enclosed entire villages. Over 30,000 people in twelve villages have now become homeless. Over 5,000 houses were lost in the localities of Jatirejo, Kedungcangkring, Renokenongo, Siring and Besuki. 25 leather and textile factories, the largest employers in the region, have sunk. The area around Sidoarjo has been cut off from the electricity and supply network for months and an area of ​​ten square kilometers can no longer be used for years. Fatalities are not yet to be mourned, as the residents usually had enough time to escape from the mud. However, 13 people died in 2006 when a gas pipe half submerged in the mud exploded under pressure.

In Malang and Batu , since the interruption of the connecting roads from Surabaya to the south, many weekend visitors have stayed away, especially the high-altitude town of Batu west of Malang has been popular with the population of Surabaya because of its coolness. On April 4, 2007, the railway line from Surabaya to the far east of Java between Siduarjo and Bangil was closed due to being washed out by the mud. As a result, practically the entire outer east of Java is cut off from the rest of the rail network on Java, as the 240 kilometer detour for the trains via Kediri , Blitar and Malang is too long. As a result, the Banyuwangi ferry port , via which you can cross to Bali , is no longer continuously accessible by train.

In addition, the subsoil has been sagging since the outbreak began. In the period from September 15 to the turn of 2006/2007, the site gave way by more than one meter. In addition, the ground moved 55 centimeters towards the crater.

Those affected receive aid money equivalent to 26 euros per month from the Indonesian government .

Output quantities

The table below lists the known sludge discharge rates.

month Average emissions per day in m³
June 2006 50,000
September 2006 126,000
December 2006 176,000
February 2007 5,000-150,000 (New Scientist); 200,000 (GEO)
May 2007 100,000
August 2011 10,000
June 2015 10,000

Countermeasures

With the order No. 13/2006 of President Yudhoyono , a crisis team ( Lapindo Mud National Task Team ) was set up to stop the uncontrolled discharge of the sludge.

Walls and dams were built throughout the region around Sidoarjo. For this purpose, 600 trucks transported a total of over 2,000,000 cubic meters of earth. But the barriers offer no protection. They are flooded or undermined by the slowly but steadily rising mass of mud and break. A dam was built around the crater in a wide area. In the area defined by this, the mud is now 14 meters high.

The American company Boots & Coots , which specializes in solving problems with oil wells, has worked out a possible solution under the direction of Jim LaGrone . Together with the Australian company Century and its project manager Dick Butler, a rescue well was started not far from the decommissioned BPJ-1 . This should meet the old shaft at a depth of 1500 meters. It was then planned to pump up to 15,000 barrels of the chemical substance “Micromax” into the rising water. “Micromax” , which consists mainly of manganese , has a much higher density than water, namely 2.88 grams per cubic centimeter. By introducing the substance, the water rise should be slowed down and stopped completely after two hours. However, in January 2007, after two months of drilling, the rescue bore was only 853 meters deep, as large fractures had occurred in the rock layers. As a result, LaGrone and his team were withdrawn and work stopped.

Another option that the authorities are considering is draining the mud into the Porong River . In a report by a UN monitoring group in July 2006, however, such a solution was warned, as the mud could kill life in the sea areas close to the shore and thus destroy the livelihoods of local fishermen. In addition, the mud is far too tough to divert. An attempt should now be made to liquefy it. Currently (2013), the mud has been discharged into the sea shortly before the mouth of the Porong for some time. In the meantime, the consequences that were warned about are clearly evident: The bacteria that decompose the nutrient-rich sludge consume almost all of the oxygen in the immediate vicinity and thus rob other organisms of their livelihood.

In April 2007, the attempt to fill the hole with concrete balls was also given up. Japanese scientists then proposed building a 40-meter-high, double-walled wall around the crater in the hopes that the pressure of the weight of the mud column created in it would stop the eruption. The project would cost around 50 million euros in total. So far, nobody has agreed to finance it.

In 2013 there were increasing indications that the pressure of the mud volcano was easing and experts came to the view that in a few years the end of the destructive mud flow can be expected.

swell

General sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Lenz: 48,000 bathtubs of mud per hour , Handelsblatt , March 31, 2008
  2. ↑ see regularly updated satellite images from the University of Singapore, May 2010
  3. ↑ "Lusi" will spit for another 26 years. In: n-tv. February 26, 2011, accessed February 28, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Deutschlandfunk : No End of the Mud Battle , Research News from May 7, 2008
  5. ↑ The Jakarta Post online archive : "Hot mudflow in Sidoarjo investigated by police" , Friday, June 16, 2006
  6. ↑ Gerd Pasch : Endless mud - Lusi volcano on Java puzzles the researchers , Deutschlandfunk - Science in Focus, May 8, 2011
  7. ↑ a b picture of science from June 30, 2015
  8. ↑ WALHI : Lapindo and Government Soundness ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eng.walhi.or.id
  9. ↑ Tim C. Jennerjahn, Ingo Jänen u. a .: Environmental impact of mud volcano inputs on the anthropogenically altered Porong River and Madura Strait coastal waters, Java, Indonesia. In: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 130, 2013, pp. 152-160, doi : 10.1016 / j.ecss.2013.04.007 .
  10. ↑ Mud volcano suffocates marine environment. In: scinexx.de. Retrieved August 2, 2013 .
  11. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25188259

Web links

Commons : Sidoarjo Mudflow  - collection of images, videos and audio files
English

Coordinates: 7 ° 31 ′ 39.5 ″  S , 112 ° 42 ′ 41.1 ″  E