Seal the crater with cement

Indonesian officials today will release hundreds of giant circular concrete blocks into a volcanic crack to prevent mud from erupting, at the risk of flooding villages and factories.

This hot and toxic sludge - enough to fill 50 Olympic pools - spilled out of the crater for the past 9 months, forcing at least 11,000 people to leave their homes. Four villages and 25 factories were buried under nearly 9 meters of mud.

These cement balls are stringed, each weighing nearly 247 kg, will be released from a scaffold down the mud volcano on Java Island, starting today. If successful, this project will reduce up to 70% of the mud currently being transferred by a system of dams to a nearby river and to the sea.

Sludge cracks often appear along the loose geological belt like flowing beneath Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago. Many different opinions about the cause of the occurrence of this mud stream - the largest mud flow is recorded here - but experts agree that it may flow in the next few years.

Some experts speculate that the crack was caused by PT Lapindo Brantas' gas mining technology fault, and the government announced it would pay about $ 420 million to compensate for the damage.

The prepared rocks are dropped to block the mud flow. (Photo: AP)

T. An