What made the volcanic eruption in the Pacific so destructive?

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Most tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes; only about 5% are associated with volcanoes. So what happened in the Pacific?

world’s volcanism takes place underwater. This is not just because most of the world’s surface is underwater. It is because plate tectonics has placed the seams where the Earth’s crust is created and destroyed: in the ocean’s depths. The volcanic activity associated with creation is slow and steady, and it takes place a long way beneath the waves, all of which makes it very benign. That which accompanies the destruction is a lot more troublesome.

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which has a base about 20km across and rises some 1,800 metres above the seafloor, takes its name from the two parts of the rim of its crater, or caldera, that rise above the sea: the small uninhabited islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai. An eruption that started in December 2014 filled in the gap between them with lava and ash, making the two islands one. A series of eruptions which began late last year saw the now unified island grow further.

Closely linked to this explosion above the surface seems to have been an implosion below. When an eruption empties out a magma chamber the rock above it is undermined. This is the process which creates calderas. The eruption on January 15th seems to have seen at least a partial collapse; satellite data show that only a small part of one of the old islands remains above the waves. The collapse probably played a role in the tsunami that followed.

 

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