Mudflow Lusi south of Surabaya

Lusi is the biggest mud volcano in the world. A mud volcano is a fairly common and interesting natural phenomenon. A lot of people think that mudflow Lusi is connected to Mt. Bromo. But it isn't. The volcano is active since May 2006.
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Lusi is the biggest mud volcano in the world

Lusi is the abbreviation of Lumpur Sidoarjo. Lumpur is the Indonesian word for mud. All this mud is coming from a mud volcano situated in the village Sidoarjo, south of East Java's capital, Surabaya. It is the biggest mudflow in the world. It is expected that the volcano will be active for at least the next 25 years.

Origin of the mudflow

The origin of this mudflow is a complex and also very sensitive subject. But, in general, mud volcano systems are common in Java as a half-graben is lying beneath the province East Java. This basin is filled with marine carbonates and marine mud. The East Java Basin started to become over pressured millions and millions of years ago. Some of the overpressured mud escapes to the surface and form mud volcanoes. This has happened before near Solo in Central Java and in Purwodadi, 200 km west of Sidoarjo.

A half-graben is a geological structure bounded by a fault along one side of its boundaries, unlike a full graben where a depressed block of land is bordered by parallel faults. a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock mass movement. (Source: en.wikipedia.org).

Oil and gas reserves Sidoarjo

The East Java Basin contains a significant amount of oil and gas reserves. The area south of Sidoarjo is a well known mineral industry of 7,250 km2. It consists in three oil and gas fields, named Wunut, Carat and Tanggulangin. Three companies—Santos (18%), MedcoEnergi (32%) and PT Lapindo Brantas (50%)—had concession rights for this area, since 2006.

PT Lapindo Brantas targeted gas on May 28th, 2006.