The mystery behind the world's dirtiest volcano is finally decoded

Instead of lava, this volcano erupts . mud with a terrible smell. The reason for the existence of this mountain has finally got the answer.

In May 2006, the whole world was startled when an Indonesian volcano erupted. The reason is because it is the most . dirty and horrifying eruption in history.

What it spewed out was not lava, but a super-dirty sulfur slurry.

The mountain is named Lusi, in the Indonesian island of Java. What it spewed out was not lava, but a super-dirty sulfur slurry . The mud layer quickly covered many towns, pushing people around the area to evacuate. More importantly, the eruption continued for 11 years, and the mud layer today covered the entire area within a 10km radius.

The question is, why did Lusi spew mud instead of lava, and why didn't it stop? It was a mystery that haunted the scientific community for more than a decade, but we finally got the answer thanks to the efforts of experts from the University of Oslo (Norway).

Specifically, according to research published in Geophysical Research, Lusi is not really a true volcano. It is connected to Arjuno-Welirang - a nearby stratovolcano (volcano-shaped volcano) , and this is the cause of eruption for 11 years.

After 11 years, the mud layer continues to boil and spread out.

The Arjuno-Welirang source of magma has "burned" sediments rich in organic matter, accumulating large amounts of gas directly below Lusi. Over time the pressure grew, peaked and exploded. However, the place erupted too far from Arjuno-Welirang's magma source, so instead of spitting out lava, Lusi spewed mud.

At the peak of the peak, each day the mountain sprayed up to 180,000 cubic meters of mud - enough to fill 72 Olympic swimming pools. More than 60,000 houses were destroyed, including 40m deep in the terrible mud. Some victims also unfortunately died from this disaster.

As the underlying sediment is still heated, Lusi will continue to erupt for many more years.

In fact, volcanic eruptions exist in many parts of the world.

However, Lusi is still a very mysterious mountain, so the scientific world still cannot understand whether Lusi's nature is a volcano.

In fact, volcanic eruptions exist in many parts of the world - like Iceland, North America. But these mountains erupt because the mud is compressed and pressed on the surface - like toothpaste.

Meanwhile, Lusi has a part of the geothermal hydrothermal system - like hydrothermal underwater tubes. This makes the eruptions of this mountain stronger, and dirty to the extent of the presence of steam.