Mud volcano swallowed 12 villages

In May 2006 the mud volcano Lusi erupted in East Java, swallowing 12 villages and displacing at least 40,000 people. The disaster happened as a gas-drilling operation by Lapindo Brantas hit a mud pocket.

The photo above was taken from the net as the mud flow began. The photos below were taken 3 1/2 years later and show a mud level of 8 meters in the area contained by a 10 meter high dam.

Below one of the villages destroyed by the mud volcano. In the back the huge dam erected to contain the mud lake which still rises.

The devastating ‘mud volcano’ could keep spewing for the next 30 years, filling the equivalent of 50 Olympic-size swimming pools every day.

Sidoarjo, East Java, November 2009.