Indonesian `mud volcano` stirs again: expert

Sludge spewing from a devastating "mud volcano" on Indonesia's Java has increased again and may be related to a quake that struck nearby this week and a warming volcano, a scientist said Friday.

On Monday a 4.9-magnitude quake hit near the East Java town of Situbondo, about 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast of the mud volcano, sparking panic and damaging scores of houses.

Soffian Hadi Djojopranoto, a geologist and deputy head of the government team managing the East Java mud volcano, said the volume of sludge gushing out has jumped from about 70,000 cubic metres a day last week to 100,000.

"From a few days before the Situbondo earthquake until now, we have monitored an increase in the mud volume," he told AFP.

The mudflow peaked at about 200,000 cubic metres a day last December. (*)