The January 2022 volcanic eruption in Tonga was the strongest on record
Satellite view of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano shortly before its deadly eruption (illustration image).
© Maxxar Technologies/Reuters
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The deadly volcanic eruption that hit the Tonga Islands in early 2022 was the strongest ever recorded with modern equipment, a team of scientists led by New Zealand revealed on Monday (November 21st).
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The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai submarine volcano erupted in mid-January with the power equivalent to hundreds of atomic bombs, causing a 15m high tsunami.
Three people were then killed during this disaster which also led to the destruction of homes and the rupture of the communications cable linking the archipelago to the Internet network.
This small Pacific nation had thus found itself cut off from the rest of the world for weeks, which had complicated relief operations.
According to the study carried out by the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, nearly 10 km3 of material were projected during the eruption, the equivalent of 2.6 million Olympic swimming pools.
Debris was propelled to an altitude of more than 40 km, in the part of the atmosphere called mesosphere, beyond the stratosphere.
A "rival" eruption of that of Krakatoa
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption in January 2022 rivals the Krakatoa disaster - in 1883 - which claimed tens of thousands of lives in Indonesia at a time when modern measuring devices did not exist.
“
Although this eruption was significant - one of the largest since Krakatoa - the difference is that it is an underwater volcano and that partly explains why there were tsunami waves too important
," said marine geologist Kevin Mackay.
The team of scientists identified three-quarters of the material projected during the eruption, the rest being made up of debris dispersed in the atmosphere.
According to Kevin Mackay, the plume that rose above the volcano contained almost 2 km3 of particles that remained in the atmosphere for "
months, resulting in beautiful sunsets
" that were even visible in New Zealand. , more than 2,000 km from Tonga.
The crater 700 meters deeper
His team also found that the volcano's crater is now 700m deeper.
The pyroclastic flows, formed by volcanic projections reaching 1,000°C and a speed of 700 km/h, transported debris from the volcano to the seabed at least 80 km further.
"
But the pyroclastic flows seem to extend beyond that, perhaps up to 100 km
," said Emily Lane, the team's research director.
(
with AFP
)
►Also read
: The eruption of a volcano in the Tonga Islands causes a tsunami in the Pacific
(
January 16, 2022
)
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