Indonesian authorities will try to stem a gushing mud eruption that has inundated villages and factories by dropping hundreds of giant concrete balls into a gouge in the earth, The Associated Press quoted an official as saying today. Around a million oil drums of hot, noxious mud _ equal to about 50 Olympic swimming pools_ have flowed from the hole at a drilling site every day for the last nine months, forcing thousands of people from their homes. The chained cement balls, weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds) each, will be dropped from scaffolding into the so-called mud volcano beginning Friday, said Rudi Novrianto, a spokesman for a national task force handling the disaster. He said he hoped it would «decrease the volume of the mud by 50 until 70 percent.» The sediment is now being channeled by a system of dams into a nearby river and out to sea.
