Editor's Summary
22 February 2007
Unnatural disaster?
On the cover, local residents struggle to save goods from a factory flooded by mud and water from the 'Lusi' mud volcano, which first erupted on 29 May 2006 in the Sidoarjo regency in Eastern Java. A recent report on its causes and impact predicted that it will continue to erupt and spew out between 7,000 and 150,000 cubic metres of mud a day for many months, leaving an area of at least 10 square kilometres around the volcano vent uninhabitable for years, and more than 11,000 people permanently displaced. As to the cause, there lies the controversy. Claims that it is a natural phenomenon, triggered by a nearby earthquake that occurred two days before the eruption, are contested by geologists. The eruption was almost certainly man-made, they say, the result of the drilling of a nearby exploratory borehole looking for gas. David Cyranoski reports on the current state of the eruption and the controversy it has raised.
News Feature: Indonesian eruption: Muddy waters
How did a mud volcano come to destroy an Indonesian town? David Cyranoski reports from Sidoarjo.
doi:10.1038/445812a
