Enlarge / Engineers have attempted to contain a mud volcano in Indonesia that has covered more than 1,700 hectares in mud (Image credit: Eka Dharma/AFP via Getty Images)
Rice farmers living in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia, woke up on May 29, 2006 with a strange sight.
Over the next few weeks, water, boiling hot mud and natural gas were added to the mixture. As the eruption intensified, mud began to spread over the fields. Alarmed residents evacuated, hoping to safely await the eruption.
The mud attack forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. (credit: Mochammad Risyal Hidayat/AFP via Getty Images)
Except it didn’t stop. Weeks passed and the spreading mud engulfed entire villages. In a frantic race against time, the Indonesian government began building dikes to contain the mud and prevent its spread. When the mud flooded these levees, they built new ones behind the first set. The government eventually succeeded in halting the mud’s advance, but not before the floods wiped out a dozen villages and forced 60,000 people to relocate.
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