"Lusi," a mud volcano in Sidoarjo of East Java, Indonesia, first erupted on May 29, 2006. The 40 Olympic-sized pools of mud the volcano spewed a day during its peak buried homes and land in a 7-square kilometer radius, displacing over 13,000 families.
Based on the flow of mud, which has now slowed to 4 pools a day, researchers estimate that Lusi will continue to erupt until 2037.
"Our estimate is that it will take 26 years for the eruption to drop to a manageable level and for Lusi to turn into a slow bubbling volcano," Richard Davies, professor of Earth sciences at Durham University in England, said.
The newest timeline for Lusi's eruptions is the first reliable estimate researchers have been able to predict.
"We did a provisional estimate in 2008, but we have significantly improved the methodology. Also, for two or three years there was a lot of debate about what caused it. I think there were a lot of people involved in working what happened - so now we have seen the natural progression from wanting to know what caused it to wanting to know how long it will last," Davies explained.
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