Scientists Attempt To Calm Volcano

An anonymous reader writes "Since May 2006, a mud volcano in Indonesia has spewed out up to 126,000 cubic metres of mud a day, flooding an area of more than 4 square kilometres. This unprecedented natural disaster has become so bad that geophysicists now plan to enact an untested scheme to try and slow the flow: dropping concrete balls into the volcano."

Comments

Doesn't seem like a good idea

[dickeya]

As one of the physicists said "The mud will find another way out". Maybe if they plug the hole, enough pressure will build up to cause a real eruption.

These events happen for a reason. It's the planet's way of staying in balance.

That should work just fine

[Weaselmancer]

Ever have a bottle of soda suddenly start spraying? How well does sticking your thumb over the nozzle help?

Re:A more practical solution

[ColaMan]

would be to explode a deeply placed high explosive device, in the range of kilotons.

Except for that tedious problem of obtaining, placing and detonating a few thousand tons of HE in the right spot deep down inside a mud volcano that is busily spewing mud upwards.

But that's just a minor engineering problem, isn't it?