--> Abstract: The Lusi Mud Eruption of East Java, by Mark Tingay, Oliver Heidbach, Richard Davies, and Richard Swarbrick; #90082 (2008)

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The Lusi Mud Eruption of East Java

Mark Tingay1, Oliver Heidbach2, Richard Davies3, and Richard Swarbrick4
1School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
2Geophysics Institute, University Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
3Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
4GeoPressure Technology, Durham, United Kingdom

Early in the morning of the 29th of May 2006, hot mud started erupting from the ground in the densely populated Porong District of Sidoarjo, East Java. With initial flow rates of approximately 5000 cubic meters per day, the mud quickly inundated neighbouring villages. Over 18 months later and the ‘Lusi’ (coined from ‘Lumpur Sidoarjo’) eruption has increased in strength, expelling over 0.04 cubic kilometres of mud at rates of up to 170,000 cubic metres per day. The mud flow has now covered over 700 hectares of land to depths of up to 17 meters, engulfing eight villages and displacing over 17000 people.

The Lusi eruption is an example of a mud volcano, a relatively common feature in sedimentary basins that have been rapidly deposited or are in tectonically active areas. However, Lusi provides an opportunity to study a large mud volcano from its birth and to investigate the origins, mechanics and architecture of mobile shale features. This presentation will provide a summary of the Lusi mud volcano, review the events leading up to and following the eruption and discuss the attempts made to contain and stop the mud flow.

AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 © AAPG Search and Discovery