Volcano

Displaced families continue to fight on a year after Tonga’s devastating volcanic eruption

The powerful undersea volcano erupted on January 15, 2022 triggering a violent tsunami which caused widespread damage to the main island of Tongatapu while wiping out smaller, neighbouring islands leaving them uninhabitable.

Tagata Pasifika reports Uatekini Folau and his family were forced to leave their home on ‘Atatā, one of the outer islands near the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcano.

“We lost our home and at the moment, even though we are starting over again, we are happy that my family and I are alive,” Uatekini says.  

Tonga volcano eruption raises ‘imminent’ risk of temporary 1.5C breach

On 15 January 2022, an underwater volcano in Tonga – the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai – erupted violently, releasing billowing plumes of soot, water vapour and sulphur dioxide high into the atmosphere.

Major volcanic eruptions typically cool the planet temporarily, because, until they dissipate, sulphur dioxide particles reflect sunlight away from the planet. However, the study – published in Nature Climate Change – finds that the Tonga eruption in the south Pacific expelled an unprecedented amount of water into the atmosphere.

Lightning in the ‘cataclysmic’ Tonga volcano eruption shattered ‘all records’

Not only did it trigger widespread tsunami waves, but it also belched an enormous amount of climate-warming water vapor into the Earth’s stratosphere.

Now researchers in a new report have unveiled something else: the eruption set off more than 25,500 lightning events in just five minutes. Over the course of just six hours, the volcano triggered nearly 400,000 lightning events. Half of all the lightning in the world was concentrated around this volcano at the eruption’s peak.

Tonga volcano eruption continues to astonish

An analysis of seismic waves has revealed four individual events that are interpreted to be thrusts of molten rock beneath the underwater mountain.

Occurring within a five-minute period, each of these blows is calculated to have had a force of a billion tonnes.

It's a further revelation about the behaviour of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai.

The seamount produced the biggest atmospheric explosion ever recorded by modern instrumentation - far bigger even than any nuclear bomb test conducted after WWII.

Tonga announces Japan-backed plan recovery from volcanic eruption

Tsunami waves of up to 15 meters hit the South Pacific island nation following the eruption, destroying many buildings. The damage to undersea cables hampered telephone and internet connections. Drinking water was tainted with volcanic ash.

The Tongan government made the announcement at an online seminar on Wednesday. The plan was drawn up with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA.

The plan includes relocating houses to avoid damage from tsunami and installing evacuation towers near hotels in coastal areas.

Tonga volcano “afterglow” causes dazzling skies in Antarctica

Scientists working in Antarctica have captured breath-taking photos of the skies above the icy continent, including these mesmerising shots taken by Antarctica New Zealand science technician Stuart Shaw, who is stationed at Scott Base for the winter.

Immense crater hole created in Tonga volcano

The caldera of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai is now 4km (2.5 miles) wide and drops to a base 850m below sea level.

Before the catastrophic eruption, the base was at a depth of about 150m.

It drives home the scale of the volume of material ejected by the volcano - at least 6.5 cubic km of ash and rock.

"If all of Tongatapu, the main island of Tonga, was scraped to sea level, it would fill only two-thirds of the caldera," Prof Shane Cronin from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said.

NZ medical team notices signs of post-traumatic stress disorder

New Zealand's Pacific Medical Association says that people are starting to show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption was a one-in-1000-year disaster. The resulting tsunami and ash cloud fallout have devastated the Kingdom. Waves up to 15 metres high destroyed hundreds of homes and wiped out entire villages. Miraculously only three people were killed.

"They thought it was World War III" said Amanaki Misa the Pacific Medical Association team leader currently stationed in Tonga.

Tonga volcano officially the largest eruption of the 21st century, new data confirms

In late December 2021, there were small eruptions in the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic island which, quieted down after about a week.

An eruption then followed in the early morning of January 14, determined by NASA to be "hundreds of times more powerful" than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Having ejected a volume of around 10 cubic kilometers (more than 2 cubic miles) volcanic material, it generated an atmospheric shock wave that circled the world several times and an ash plume half the size of France.

Tonga volcano: NIWA scientists to map eruption's impact on seabed

NIWA's research vessel, RV Tangaroa, will head over on 9 April to collect video images of the seafloor and another vessel, from British enterprise SEA-KIT International, will conduct further mapping over a month.

NIWA chief scientist of oceans Mike Williams, who is the project leader, predicted they would see massive changes to the underwater landscape around Tonga.