The recent volcanic eruption in Tonga was so strong that it was heard worldwide and caused a tsunami that inundated the Pacific beaches from Japan to the United States.
A deafening sound was heard 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) away in Alaska during the protracted, rumbling eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which was captured on dramatic satellite photos. The Saturday eruption was compared by the U.S. Geological Survey to an earthquake with a 5.8 magnitude at zero depth.
Senior lecturer in the School of Geology at Otago University and a scientist from New Zealand named Marco Brenna described the eruption’s effects as “very moderate,” but he said that a future eruption with far greater effects should not be ruled out. Japan’s Pacific coast was battered by waves of about 1.2 meters, and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a warning that waves as high as three meters were conceivable.
More than 2,300 kilometres away from Tonga in New Zealand, a big wave that crashed into a marina caused the evacuation of 120 people from northern coastal districts and the destruction of many vessels. In California, Santa Cruz’s coastal streets were under water and blocked to traffic, while Australia’s well-known Bondi Beach in Sydney was briefly evacuated as a precaution.
Anchorage and Fairbanks’ eruptions were “6,000 miles from the volcano,” according to the National Weather Service Alaska. The Scottish weather station in Fife tweeted that it was “simply astounding to conceive of the force that may send a shockwave around the world” after the explosions caused an increase in their air pressure graph.
About 65 kilometres to the north of Nuku’alofa is the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai region, which has a turbulent past. During a recent eruption in 2009, it broke through the surface of the ocean. In 2015, it erupted and vomited so much ash and big rocks into the air that when they settled, a brand-new island 2 kilometres long, 1 kilometre wide, and 100 meters high was created.
The effects of the volcanic ash on the Tongan archipelago’s water supply and the delivery of relief to the islands are more urgent. Attempts of assistance have so far been impeded by the ash cloud, and there is a worry that aid workers may bring the Covid-19 virus with them. While this is going on, it is challenging to gauge the extent of the destruction because the connection with the Kingdom of Tonga has been badly hampered.
Now that a massive volcanic explosion has shaken the island nation of Tonga and caused our atmosphere to ring like a bell, albeit at a frequency that is too low for us to hear, scientists are beginning to assess its effects. According to a recent NASA evaluation, the 1945 nuclear bomb unleashed on Hiroshima, Japan, was only a fraction of the strength of the volcanic eruption in Tonga. It would seem that the ash cloud was higher than initially believed, extending even further into our atmosphere. The ash plume also penetrated the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere, the three layers of our atmosphere.
