Mother Nature sometimes reminds very violently how powerful and formidable she is even for humans.

The force of the volcanic eruption in the Tonga Islands on January 15 exceeded the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, NASA scientists said, as disaster survivors on Monday described a shock that "shook their brain ".

According to NASA's Earth Observatory, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano spewed a smoke mushroom up to 40 kilometers high during the eruption that was heard as far away as Alaska, more than 9,000 km away. away, and triggered a tsunami.

Between five and 30 megatons of energy released

Nasa said the eruption was several hundred times more powerful than the US atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945, which was estimated to yield about 15 kilotons (15,000 tons) of TNT.

“We believe that the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to between 5 and 30 megatons (5 to 30 million tons) of TNT,” NASA scientist Jim Garvin said in the published publication. Sunday night.

The agency said the eruption had "wiped out" the volcanic island about 65 kilometers north of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa.

A 90-day “environmental emergency”

It covered the island kingdom of around 100,000 people with a layer of toxic ash, poisoning drinking water, destroying agricultural crops and completely wiping out at least two villages.

It also killed at least three people in Tonga and led to the drowning of two bathers in Peru whose coasts were hit by exceptional waves due to the eruption.

A 90-day "environmental emergency" has been announced by Peruvian authorities for the coastal area damaged by the spill of 6,000 barrels of crude oil a week ago, an oil spill that continues to spread and despair the inhabitants.

Gray ash everywhere

In Tonga, the extent of the damage remains uncertain, with communications still down.

The shock "far exceeds anything people here have experienced," said Nuku'alofa-based journalist Mary Lyn Fonua.

"The shock wave from the eruption just shook our brains," she said, adding that the layer of fine gray ash that covers everything still makes life difficult for residents.

“It seeps everywhere,” she says.

“It irritates your eyes, you have sores in the corner of your mouth, everyone has blackened fingernails.

We look like a filthy bunch”.

The Japanese, New Zealand and Australian defense forces have started delivering emergency relief, including water, while maintaining strict Covid-19 protocols to preserve the archipelago from the pandemic.

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  • Natural disaster

  • Tonga

  • World

  • Volcano

  • Hiroshima

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