Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Indonesia's Volcano-Concrete Balls

Indonesia's Giant Mud Volcano has been spewing out hot mud for over nine months. With no signs of stopping, the area covered with mud now exceeds four square miles, covered to a depth of 10 feet, with thousands homeless and hundreds of buildings buried.
Two square miles of Indonesia is sinking at the rate of 3cm per month. The eruption is expected to go on for years.

But the Indonesians think they have the answer. They have manufactured 200 Giant concrete balls, which they are linking together with steel chain, and are about to drop the lot down into the spewing mud fountain!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/indonesia/Story/0,,2019539,00.html

***I give them 10 points for their unique solution?

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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I saw this about a month ago. I'm betting on mother earth.

I think you are right Daniel. Nature, usually wins.
I made a mistake about the number of concrete balls.
They have now made 2000 concrete ball, each weighing up to 400Kg! all chained together in groups.
That must have taken at least a month.
They start dropping them into the mud Volcano today.

One star for ingenuity.
One star for trying.

One very loud gong for convenient self-serving memory. The head of the drilling company belongs in jail.

Mike Kremer wrote:

"Nature, usually wins."

My father always used to say, "you can fight nature but the best you can do is come second".

Some one has to ask,so I will. What on earth are they trying to do? Are they REALLY trying to plug the volcano? Is this a good idea, or did it just seem a good idea at the time? Is this a regular way of achieving whatever is trying to be achieved here? ...And that is...what exactly? Will it work? That is, will they know when/if it works? Is this at all sensible? Is it possible to plug a volcano? As it says in the article, won't it just erupt elsewhere, with chains and concrete balls attached? Ouch!

I'll stop now, I feel a bit dizzy thinking about it!!

Ellis asks:
"Are they REALLY trying to plug the volcano?"

Yes.

This is the first time anyone has tried this.

You should be able to guess the rest.

But do keep in mind ... it is a hot steaming mud volcano ... not a lava volcano.

But even without the eruption factor a whole heap of heavy concrete balls stuck in an advancing tide of boiling mud is a bit confronting isn't it? Particularly if you and your village is in the way. It seems to increase the potential for damage without the certainty of benefit.

[Note: got rid of the 2 dups. Hope that fixes it.]

Post deleted by DA Morgan

Ellis wrote:

"But even without the eruption factor a whole heap of heavy concrete balls stuck in an advancing tide of boiling mud is a bit confronting isn't it?"

Concrete balls don't really add anything worse to an advancing tide of boiling mud.

We can hope.

On the other hand you know what happens when you constrict the flow of a liquid ... (1) pressure increases, (2) it's potential to erode increases, (3) it may choose a different and easier channel.

Again I hope you are right. But I wouldn't put my money down on the side of it working.

Do we know what uas happened here? Perhaps it worked as nothing has been in the news about people fleeing from boiling-mud encrusted concrete balls, but Indonesia is a country that can do a good job of suppressing news if it wants to.

Mud swallows the concrete balls.
I expect it would.....until they cap the flow.....then BOOM, out they come again?

http://news.indahnesia.com/item/200702272/mud_volcano_swallows_concrete_balls.php

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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Ten GreenPeace pics to add to my previous post

http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/photosvideos/slideshows/the-sidoarjo-mud-flow?page=4

Great pictures. Nice of GreenPeace to show the world what otherwise, at least in this country, hasn't been seen.

Well as Ellis stated earlier, Indonesia is not the type of country to tell about its problems, especially when self made.
I thought I would go to Indonesia to look

Well a month has gone by since since we first posted about the Indonesians trying to cap their Mud Volcanoe.
After dropping more than 400 large concrete balls, the mud slowed for about 35 minutes. But it has resumed its mud venting as before. Now they are about to drop anther 500 balls into the mud vent.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/22/news/mud.php?page=2

AND

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Conc...4597885971.html

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.

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I bet on an hour and twenty minutes. Any takers?

It's a lot of balls.

OK, 45 minutes.