Java mud slide: grim warning

PHOTO

Last Updated: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:10:00 +1000

Australian scientists say a volcano spewing scalding mud in East Java, Indonesia, could continue to do so for another 30 years.

Geologist Mark Tingay, from Curtin University, in Western Australia has just returned from the Porong district of Sidoarjo, where hot mud first erupted from the ground in May 2006.

Thousands have already lost their homes - see picture - and if the silent eruption continues, many more people could be displaced.

An estimated 100,000 people live near the mud flow.

Dr Tingay says the so-called Lusi eruption is is expelling enough mud to fill 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools each day and the situation is going to get worse.

He says the mud flow has already covered around seven square kilometres about 11 villages and displaced about 40,000 people.

Dr Tingay says that is just in the first three years.

If it continues, many more people could be displaced, as some 100,000 people near the mud flow.

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