Indonesia

Indonesia is considering new methods to halt a torrent of mud that has been gushing from a drilling site on Java Island for a year. Scientists have already dropped hundreds of concrete balls into the “mud volcano,” but have not plugged the mudflow that has submerged entire villages and displaced 15,000 people in Sidoarjo. Under the new scheme proposed by Japanese scientists, double-walled cofferdams will be built that can serve as a counterweight to the mudflow. (Reuters)