How to Understand the Powerful Volcanic Eruption Near Tonga

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'The height of the ash plume alone tells us that the force needed to generate that was massive,' volcanologist jessphoenix2018 tells prosaaquino in a conversation about Saturday's stunning volcanic eruption near Tonga

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The view from orbit of Saturday’s eruption of the undersea Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano. Photo: GOES-WEST satellite/NOAA The explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on Saturday sent tsunamis across the Pacific Basin and generated a globe-spanning seismic shock wave that could be seen from space.

At least half the globe either heard sonic booms, like in Anchorage, Alaska, or was affected by the tsunami. For most volcanic eruptions, you will not see effects that are that far-reaching, unless they’re big. We don’t know how big this one was because we don’t yet have all the data about the exact amount of gas emissions or how much material was erupted. Over the next few weeks, we’ll have a much clearer picture.For volcanoes worldwide, it’s not that rare.

This volcano has done a VEI 2 a few times in recorded history. But our very first data on this volcano only dates back to 1912. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano existed much, much longer than that, but the volcano was underwater; nobody really observed its emissions before.

I don’t even want to speculate about a possible VEI number yet. It’s just early on in these eruptions. We don’t have all the data. These are big events: you have atmospheric components, you have physical output of whatever came out of the volcano, and you have all the after-effects. The volcano is still erupting. It actually produced a smaller eruption after the big eruption on Saturday evening.

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jessphoenix2018 prosaaquino just wait until Yellowstone blows. We will practice our Zen and remain calm, cool and collected during the frenzy.

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