Gibbens, S. (2017, October 19). Why This Massive Mud Volcano Turned Deadly. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/mud-volcano-lusi-indonesia-video-spd/

This article talks about a mud volcano named Lusi that has been erupting non-stop for the past 10 years on the Indonesian Island of Java.  Mud-spewing volcanoes, like lava-spewing volcanoes, tend to be common where two tectonic plates converge.  The article refers to this as a subduction zone.  They violently release pressurized carbon dioxide and methane gas that has been built up over time. Lusi is also at the site of a hydrothermal vent, which releases gas.  According to the article, researchers suggest that magma from a volcanic complex in Eastern Java traveled through an underground tunnel to Lusi and has been baking the sediment under the mud volcano and constantly adding pressure, explaining why it has been ongoing for all these years.

The impact of this mud volcano on the people of Java is not small.  According to a study₁, villages were found buried in as much as 130 feet of mud. About 60,000 people had to leave their homes, and 13 people have died.  The cause of the eruption in 2006 has been disputed over the years.  Some say it is due to a magnitude 6.3 earthquake which left many homeless, and caused major cracks under the earth.  Others say it was triggered by blowouts of crude oil from drilling only a few miles away from where the mud volcano first erupted.  Therefore, the people of Java suffer not only from naturally occurring earthquakes, but from a potentially human-induced eruption from a volcanically-linked hydrothermal vent.

  1. Miller, S. A., & Mazzini, A. (2017). More than ten years of Lusi: A review of facts, coincidences, and past and future studies. Marine and Petroleum Geology. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.06.019