According to the latest data from New Zealand, the January eruption of the Tonga volcano was the strongest ever measured by modern instruments and had an even stronger impact on the environment than previously known.

According to data from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand, the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga underwater volcano Hunga-Hapai in January 2022 was the most powerful atmospheric explosion recorded on Earth in the last hundred years. .

The explosion blasted 10 cubic kilometers of material, the equivalent of 2.6 million Olympic-size swimming pools, and ash and water vapor as deep as 40 km into the atmosphere, a region called the mesosphere, extremely distant and the first time debris ejected from an eruption has reached the mesosphere.

The eruption also produced tsunami waves that reached 15 m in height, and these tsunami waves were detected in many places around the world, from Vladivostok to Alaska and from Chile to Japan.

And the sea floor has undergone changes for 80 km in the area of ​​​​the volcano, and the eruption rivals the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa (Krakatau) in 1883, which caused tens of thousands of deaths, at a time when there were no modern measuring instruments. The big difference is that Tonga erupted as a result of an underwater volcano.

The eruption in Tonga killed six people, including two in Peru. The eruption also severed an important undersea cable, leaving Tonga temporarily “cut off” from the global internet, delaying the arrival of aid from major countries.

Sources: AFP, National Geographic