On May 29, 2006, mud started erupting from several sites on the Indonesian island of Java. Boiling mud, water, rocks and gas poured from newly-created vents in the ground, burying entire towns and compelling many Indonesians to flee. By September 2006, the largest eruption site reached a peak, and enough mud gushed on the surface to fill 72 Olympic-sized swimming pools daily. The eruption, known as Lusi, is still ongoing and has become the most destructive ongoing mud eruption in history. Now, more than 11 years after it first erupted, researchers may have figured out why the mudflows haven’t stopped: deep underground, Lusi is connected to a nearby volcanic system. In a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, researchejuno-Welirang volcanic complex through a system of faults 6 kilometers (4 miles) below the surface. Studying the connection of these two systems could help scientists to better understand how volcanic systems evolve, whether they erupt magma, mud or hydrothermal fluids, according to the authors. Read more here: https://news.agu.org/press-release/scientists-determine-source-of-worlds-largest-mud-eruption/ Read the new research paper here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JB014592/abstract/ Video produced by Lauren Lipuma and Derek Sollosi at AGU. Music by: nightWalk by airtone (c) copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/56520 Show more