Explainer: Tonga’s volcanic eruption may harm environment for years, scientists say

could deliver long-lasting damage to coral reefs, erode coastlines and disrupt fisheries, say scientists studying satellite images and looking to the past to project the future of the remote region:Since the initial eruption, the volcano has been releasing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide - two gases that create acid rain when they interact with water and oxygen in the atmosphere.

Satellite imagery shows the plume spreading westward, which means Tonga could be spared some of this acid rain though Fiji could then be in its path. In the ocean, that ash can be harmful to marine life. Weeks before Saturday’s eruption, Tonga Geological Services had warned that nearby seawater was contaminated with toxic volcanic discharge, and that fishermen should “assume fish in these waters are poisoned or poisonous.”

Even before the eruption, Tonga’s reefs were threatened by disease outbreaks and the effects of climate change including coral bleaching and increasingly strong cyclones. Reefs may have to start over - a process that could take years, said Brian Zgliczynski, a coral reef ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Species more tolerant of poor water quality will arrive first,” while hard corals and fish would take longer to return, he said.ERODED COASTLINES

The only thing harmful to the environment are humans.

How could a natural earth process be harmful to the environment itself and indeed part of the process that actually gives life? 🙂🤔

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