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“It will make the mud tired. We’re killing the mud softly.”
An Indonesian scientist, explaining how scientists hope to quell an out-of-control mud volcano. The nearly constant eruptions of liquefied soil and steam began last May, when drilling in eastern Java apparently tapped into a gigantic pressurized underground aquifer. Since then, thousands of villagers have fled as mud engulfed their homes on Indonesia’s most densely populated island.  After fruitless attempts to stop the mud flow, geophysicists will attempt to plug the hole by dropping 1,000 sets of specially created weights into the hole.  Each set of weights includes four concrete balls — two 16 inches across and two eight inches across — linked by a heavy five-foot chain for a total mass of about 660 pounds.