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

Re:It'll never work

[sumdumass]

Well, They are basicly dropping Tums and mylanta into it. The active ingredients of Tums involve calcium carbonate. One of the active ingredients of Mylanta is Aluminum Hydroxide. Note the core elements are calcium and aluminum. The compounds allow them to be digested and used easily in the body.

The chemical make up of concrete (portland cement mainly) is mostly

1. Tricalcium silicate
2. Dicalcium silicate
3. Tricalcium aluminate
4. Tetracalcium aluminoferrite
5. Gypsum

Notice that these are all compounds of calcium and aluminum. I asume the heated water will help disolve them.

pfft, we have just solve this problem. Give us another challenge ;)

Strange how close you are. The witch doctor might add some value too. Maybe they can start a cultist religion surounding the "apeasing the volcano god" and use the funds from the colection plate to pay for the balls. Once a month the witch doctor could say the volcano god said supply it with Tums or it will cause destruction just before the colection plate is passed around.