Volcanic Discrepancies

Research into the Indonesian mud volcano that has displaced at least 11000 people from their homes has demonstrated that the cause of the eruption was a borehole drilled by a natural gas exploration company.

The terradaily report on this is littered with overblown significant figures. “An area of at least 10 square kilometers (3.9 square miles) around the volcano will be uninhabitable for years”, their reports tells us. It adds that the volcano has been disgorging between “7,000 and 150,000 cubic metres (245,000 and 5.25 million cubic feet)” of mud every day. At a depth of “around 2,830 metres (7,735 feet) below the surface” etc etc.

This Sig Fig note is not intended to detract from the problem that this mud volcano has caused, but the original research hopes to improve understanding of the phenomenon and to highlight the fact that inappropriate drilling without adequate structural reinforcement. Part of an improved understanding involves not providing higher levels of precision than were measured in the original studies by using conversion factors with more significant figures than makes scientific sense. More to the point, why do those news reports insist on providing “imperial” measurements in a science news article in the first place. If you’re reading about the cause and effect of mud volcanoes and other geological phenomenon then you should be able to cope easily with cubic meters rather than having to worry about what that volume is in feet.

Isn’t it time the US adopted the far more logical metric system that the rest of the world has been using for decades?