Wellington. According to a team of academics led by New Zealand, the catastrophic volcanic eruption in Tonga in January was the strongest ever observed using current technology.
In this Pacific Ocean nation, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted underwater with the force of 100 atomic bombs, causing a 15-meter tidal wave that devastated homes and claimed the lives of at least three individuals.
Two Peruvian women were killed by the ocean wave, which also damaged underwater communication cables and cut Tonga off from the outside world for several weeks.
According to a research by New Zealand’s National Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, the eruption discharged debris that traveled more than 40 kilometers into the mesosphere and about 10 cubic kilometers of material (the equivalent of 2.6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools).
According to marine geologist Kevin Mackay, the eruption set a height record by becoming the first to enter the mesosphere, the layer above the stratosphere.
The Krakatoa eruption in Indonesia, which killed thousands of people in 1883 before the development of modern measurement devices, may be comparable to the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption.
In contrast, “Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is an underwater volcano,” claimed MacKay.
The expert went on to say that the eruption’s column of smoke, which contained particles that lingered in the atmosphere for months and contributed to the stunning sunsets we saw in the Pacific, comprised around 2 cubic kilometers of material.
Additionally, his team found that the crater has grown 700 meters deeper since it was first identified.
Shiveluch and Klyuchevskaya Sopka
On the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka, however, two volcanoes erupted, sending ash and lava clouds into the air.
With around 30 active volcanoes, the peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 6,600 kilometers east of Moscow, is one of the planet’s most geothermal regions.
After a significant earthquake on Saturday, local media reported volcanic activity.
The Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Volcanology said that there were roughly 10 explosions each hour at Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at 4,754 meters is the highest active volcano in Eurasia.
The institute also noted that the Shiveluch volcano is releasing lava and ash.
Kamchatka is a peninsula with a small population. The 5,000-person village of Klyuchi is situated between the two volcanoes, approximately 30 and 50 kilometers away.
The distance between the volcanoes and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the peninsula’s sole large city, is around 450 kilometers.