A serious leak in Java
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30 Sep 2006, 03:02
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Journals
Ha, you thought this journal is about programming, didn't you? Gotcha!
Actually, I just stumbled upon this weird piece of news from East Java, Indonesia: they're drowning into mud.
A gas company called PT Lapindo Brantas, controlled by the family of Indonesia's senior welfare minister, was drilling oil in a village south of Surabaya. Suddenly massive amounts of hot mud started to pour out from the two-mile-deep hole!
The mud flow started on 29th of May, and has been going on ever since showing no signs of stopping: the flow has actually increased. Every day 126000 cubic meters of mud appears from the hole on the ground. Right now the layer gray ooze covers 26 square kilometers and is 20 feet thick. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, the drilling site was in the middle of a populated area.
I found some satellite images of the area: they've been trying to isolate the area with dams, but the amount of mud is increasing daily, and the heavy rains expected soon could break the soft temporary barriers, so they're trying to direct the flow of mud straight to the ocean.
What's alarming, though, is, that no-one actually knows when the flow of mud will stop -- or will it stop at all. Some scientists have estimated, that it could continue to pour out for the next 10 or 100 years, which might cause a serious catastrophe in the area. Blocking the hole is very difficult at this point, the whole area being covered by a massive layer of mud.
Wonders of mother nature, I guess.
Links:
LA Times: The Gray Ooze That Ate the Indonesian Villages
Water Reserve: Indonesia: Catastrophic mudslide could last 100 years, say scientists
Satellite shots
Random news video from the area
Actually, I just stumbled upon this weird piece of news from East Java, Indonesia: they're drowning into mud.A gas company called PT Lapindo Brantas, controlled by the family of Indonesia's senior welfare minister, was drilling oil in a village south of Surabaya. Suddenly massive amounts of hot mud started to pour out from the two-mile-deep hole!
The mud flow started on 29th of May, and has been going on ever since showing no signs of stopping: the flow has actually increased. Every day 126000 cubic meters of mud appears from the hole on the ground. Right now the layer gray ooze covers 26 square kilometers and is 20 feet thick. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, the drilling site was in the middle of a populated area.
I found some satellite images of the area: they've been trying to isolate the area with dams, but the amount of mud is increasing daily, and the heavy rains expected soon could break the soft temporary barriers, so they're trying to direct the flow of mud straight to the ocean.
What's alarming, though, is, that no-one actually knows when the flow of mud will stop -- or will it stop at all. Some scientists have estimated, that it could continue to pour out for the next 10 or 100 years, which might cause a serious catastrophe in the area. Blocking the hole is very difficult at this point, the whole area being covered by a massive layer of mud.
Wonders of mother nature, I guess.
Links:
LA Times: The Gray Ooze That Ate the Indonesian Villages
Water Reserve: Indonesia: Catastrophic mudslide could last 100 years, say scientists
Satellite shots
Random news video from the area
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