Tsunami Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga, causing small tsunami waves - NOAA

jward

passin' thru
Tonga hit by Tsunami after volcanic eruption

A tsunami warning has been issued by officials in Tonga and American Samoa after a large volcanic eruption. Parts of Tonga's capital have been flooded.

A volcano explodes in the sea
An undersea volcano off the coast of Tonga seen erupting in 2009

The Pacific island of Tonga experienced a large volcanic eruption Saturday followed by a tsunami that flooded parts of the capital, Nuku'alofa.


The surge wave reached a height of 80 centimeters (31 inches), according to the New Zealand climate website Harukai Gulf Weather, citing sea level monitoring data. There is no information yet on property damage or casualties.

Infografik Karte Tonga EN


The US based Pacific tsunami warning center said tsunami waves measuring 2 feet in height were observed by sea-level gauges in the capital of the US territory of American Samoa, around 940 kilometers (580 miles) from Tonga.

The tsunami monitor added that sea level fluctuations and strong ocean currents pose hazards along beaches in harbors. Officials there have issued a tsunami warning, and told residents to "immediately" evacuate to higher ground.
Undersea volcano erupts
The eruption Saturday was the latest in a series from the undersea Hunga Tonga, Hunga Ha'apai volcano.
Images posted on social media from Tonga showed the tsunami breach the shoreline, and move into the town.

The volcanic eruption which occured Friday was one of the more powerful ones, and sent plumes of ash and smoke into the air, with smoke clouds extending up to 20 kilometers (around 12 miles) above the volcano.

The volcano showed some intermittent activity through December last year, but eruptions weren't so powerful. On Friday, people were advised by officials to stay home and protect drinking water and resources in light of the eruption.


Tsunami warning for parts of New Zealand, waves crash on Tonga


Parts of New Zealand are now also under tsunami warning after a violent eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai underwater volcano in Tonga this afternoon.

The warning for the north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands came a short time ago from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

It warned people in those areas that they might experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore.

Breaking: A tsunami warning is in effect for the island of Tonga after a volcanic eruption. A video shows a possible tsunami wave hitting the island. pic.twitter.com/rCarK7ShD8
— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) January 15, 2022
People are being urged to stay away from beaches and shore areas until 4am tomorrow, but there's no need to evacuate other areas unless directly advised by local civil defence authorities.

Coastal inundation is not expected.
A tsunami warning was issued for the whole of Tonga just after 5.30pm by the Tonga Meteorological Services.
Waves have hit the main island, Tongatapu, including its capital, Nuku'alofa.

It's dark now in Nuku'alofa and ash is falling and people can see lightning in the ash clouds.
Phone connections are down and it's been difficult for people to get through.
The eruption, between 5:20pm and 5:28pm, caused windows to rattle, houses to shake and ash was in the wind.

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The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai underwater volcano on Friday, when it started to become very active. Photo: Tonga Geological
Tidal waves crossed the Nuku'alofa shoreline and coastal roads and flooded properties.

Meanwhile, waves have hit Samoa's Savaii. More than 100 families have been evacuated in Palauli and Satupaitea after a huge wave struck the coastline, damaging homes.

RNZ Pacific's Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor said this morning the volcano was semi-active but not spewing as much ash. She spoke to both the Tonga Meteorological Service and the Tonga Geological Service and both organisations reported much less activity today.
"Obviously things changed quite quickly."


Visible satellite imagery - close up over #Tonga. Absolutely enormous #eruption. pic.twitter.com/R6oVgtzTgg
— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 15, 2022

Around 5.30pm people were posting to Facebook that sirens were ringing out across the capital, Nuka'alofa, and police were warning people to move to higher ground or stay in their houses. The geological service told people to wear masks because there was ash in the air and not long after that waves started hitting Nuka-alofa.

She said the volcano is about 65km from the main island of Tongatapu.
It had a serious eruption on December 20 and has been active up to January 11. It then became very active again yesterday.

"Yesterday's eruption was seven times bigger than the one on 20 December," she said, citing information from the geological service.

She said families in New Zealand would be trying to ring their relatives back home in Tonga but communication was difficult.

Waves looked "pretty big" on footage she had seen on social media, she said.

Samoa is about a three-hour flight away and she wouldn't be surprised if it was also affected by the latest eruption.
She didn't expect New Zealand to be affected.

 

jward

passin' thru
WEAK51 PAAQ 151253
TSUAK1

BULLETIN
Public Tsunami Message Number 2
NWS National Tsunami Warning Center Palmer AK
453 AM PST Sat Jan 15 2022

UPDATES
-------
* A tsunami has been confirmed and some impacts are expected
* Revised alert areas
* A Volcanic Eruption has occured in the Tonga Islands
* Please Disregard Earthquake Parameters


...A TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT...



Tsunami Advisory in Effect for;

* CALIFORNIA, The coast from The Cal./Mexico Border to The
Oregon/Cal. Border including San Francisco Bay

* OREGON, The coast from The Oregon/Cal. Border to The
Oregon/Wash. Border including the Columbia River estuary
coast

* WASHINGTON, Outer coast from the Oregon/Washington border
to Slip Point, Columbia River estuary coast, and the Juan
de Fuca Strait coast

* BRITISH COLUMBIA, The north coast and Haida Gwaii, the
central coast and northeast Vancouver Island, the outer
west coast of Vancouver Island, the Juan de Fuca Strait
coast

* SOUTHEAST ALASKA, The inner and outer coast from The
BC/Alaska Border to Cape Fairweather, Alaska (80 miles SE
of Yakutat)

* SOUTH ALASKA AND THE ALASKA PENINSULA, Pacific coasts from
Cape Fairweather, Alaska (80 miles SE of Yakutat) to Unimak
Pass, Alaska (80 miles NE of Unalaska)

* ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, Unimak Pass, Alaska (80 miles NE of
Unalaska) to Attu, Alaska including the Pribilof Islands


PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
---------------------------------

* The following parameters are based on a rapid preliminary
assessment of the earthquake and changes may occur.

* Magnitude 1.0
* Origin Time 1927 AKST Jan 14 2022
2027 PST Jan 14 2022
0427 UTC Jan 15 2022
* Coordinates 20.5 South 175.4 West
* Depth 1 miles
* Location near the Tonga Islands


FORECASTS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY
-----------------------------
* Tsunami activity is forecasted to start at the following
locations at the specified times.

FORECAST
START
SITE OF TSUNAMI
---- ----------

* Alaska
Adak 0600 AKST Jan 15
Shemya 0615 AKST Jan 15
Unalaska 0650 AKST Jan 15
Sand Point 0710 AKST Jan 15
Saint Paul 0735 AKST Jan 15
Cold Bay 0745 AKST Jan 15
Kodiak 0750 AKST Jan 15
Sitka 0755 AKST Jan 15
Elfin Cove 0755 AKST Jan 15
Seward 0815 AKST Jan 15
Yakutat 0815 AKST Jan 15
Valdez 0830 AKST Jan 15
Craig 0835 AKST Jan 15
Cordova 0840 AKST Jan 15
Homer 0905 AKST Jan 15

* California
Fort Bragg 0735 PST Jan 15
Monterey 0735 PST Jan 15
Port San Luis 0740 PST Jan 15
Santa Barbara 0745 PST Jan 15
La Jolla 0750 PST Jan 15
Los Angeles Harb 0750 PST Jan 15
Newport Beach 0755 PST Jan 15
Oceanside 0755 PST Jan 15
Crescent City 0800 PST Jan 15
San Francisco 0810 PST Jan 15

* Oregon
Port Orford 0755 PST Jan 15
Brookings 0800 PST Jan 15
Charleston 0810 PST Jan 15
Newport 0830 PST Jan 15
Seaside 0845 PST Jan 15

* British Columbia
Langara 0830 PST Jan 15
Tofino 0850 PST Jan 15

* Washington
Long Beach 0835 PST Jan 15
La Push 0845 PST Jan 15
Neah Bay 0850 PST Jan 15
Westport 0850 PST Jan 15
Moclips 0855 PST Jan 15
Port Angeles 0930 PST Jan 15
Port Townsend 0955 PST Jan 15


OBSERVATIONS OF TSUNAMI ACTIVITY
--------------------------------
* No tsunami observations are available to report.


RECOMMENDED ACTIONS - UPDATED
-----------------------------
Actions to protect human life and property will
vary within tsunami advisory areas.

If you are in a tsunami advisory area;

* Move out of the water, off the beach, and away from
harbors, marinas, breakwaters, bays and inlets.

* Be alert to and follow instructions from your local
emergency officials because they may have more detailed or
specific information for your location.

* If you feel a strong earthquake or extended ground rolling
take immediate protective actions such as moving inland
and/or uphill preferably by foot.

* Boat operators,
* Where time and conditions permit, move your boat out to
sea to a depth of at least 180 feet.

* If at sea avoid entering shallow water, harbors,
marinas, bays, and inlets to avoid floating and
submerged debris and strong currents.

* Do not go to the shore to observe the tsunami.

* Do not return to the coast until local emergency officials
indicate it is safe to do so.


IMPACTS
-------
Impacts will vary at different locations in the advisory
areas.

If you are in a tsunami advisory area;

* A tsunami with strong waves and currents is possible.

* Waves and currents can drown or injure people who are
in the water.

* Currents at beaches and in harbors, marinas,
bays, and inlets may be especially dangerous.

* Some impacts may continue for many hours to days after
arrival of the first wave.

* The first wave may not be the largest so later waves may
be larger.

* Each wave may last 5 to 45 minutes as a wave encroaches
and recedes.

* Coasts facing all directions are threatened because the
waves can wrap around islands and headlands and into bays.

* Strong shaking or rolling of the ground indicates an
earthquake has occurred and a tsunami may be imminent.

* A rapidly receding or receded shoreline, unusual waves and
sounds, and strong currents are signs of a tsunami.

* The tsunami may appear as water moving rapidly out to sea,
a gentle rising tide like flood with no breaking wave,
as a series of breaking waves, or a frothy wall of water.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND NEXT UPDATE
--------------------------------------
* Refer to the internet site tsunami.gov for more information.

* Pacific coastal residents outside California, Oregon,
Washington, British Columbia and Alaska should refer to the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center messages at tsunami.gov.

* This message will be updated within 60 minutes.
 

somewherepress

Has No Life - Lives on TB

Japan Faces Three Meter High Tsunami Threat After Undersea Volcano Eruption In South Pacific
Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, JAN 15, 2022 - 10:45 AM
Update (1458ET): A tsunami caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano off the South Pacific island country of Tonga reached Japan's Pacific coast late Saturday into Sunday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for the country's southwestern islands of Amami and Tokara, expecting a 3 meter (or 9.8 feet) surge.

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A less severe tsunami advisory was issued for Japan's eastern coast from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
* * *
Update (1402ET): National Weather Service's National Tsunami Warning Center reports a tsunami occurred along Alaska, British Columbia, and the US West Coast. Here are the latest water levels observed in these areas:

* * *
Update (1205ET): Social media reports indicate a surge of water has begun to hit the United States West Coast after a massive undersea volcano erupted Saturday off the South Pacific island of Tonga.
The National Weather Service's (NWS) National Tsunami Warning Center said waves of 1 to 3 feet are expected for parts of the West Coast.
In Santa Cruz, a coastal town in central California, someone tweeted a video of the rising water level.

Flooding is occurring in parts of Santa Cruz.

The water heads further inland in Santa Cruz, flooding a parking lot.

The situation worsens in Santa Cruz.

Beaches in Santa Cruz battered by the surge of water. Great to see the sea wall is doing its job.

More flooding in Santa Cruz.

A surf competition was interrupted.

One person tweeted a picture of their dock at a marina in Ventura Harbor, located 60 miles North of Los Angeles, rising to the top of the pylon.

A helicopter warns people about the tsunami in Orange County.

NWS tells people to stay away from the California coasts today.

* * *
Update (1037ET): People waking up in San Diego have received a terrifying "emergency alert" on their phones warning them about a tsunami that may occur around 0750 PST. "Waves of 1 to 3 feet are possible," the alert said. Here's what one reader in Mission Beach sent us:

Across the West Coast of the United States, a tsunami advisory is in effect for Saturday morning. The advisories were issued after a massive undersea volcano erupted Saturday off the South Pacific island of Tonga.

"A tsunami has been confirmed and some impacts are expected," the National Weather Service's National Tsunami Warning Center said early Saturday. The advisory covers:
  • The California coast from the California-Mexico border to the Oregon-California border, including San Francisco Bay.
  • The Oregon coast from the Oregon-California border to the Oregon-Washington border, including the Columbia River estuary coast.
  • The outer coast of Washington state from the Oregon-Washington border to Slip Point, Columbia River estuary coast, and the Juan de Fuca Strait coast.
  • The north coast of British Columbia, and Haida Gwaii, the central coast and northeast Vancouver Island, the outer west coast of Vancouver Island, the Juan de Fuca Strait coast.
  • The inner and outer coast of Southeast Alaska from the BC-Alaska border to Cape Fairweather, Alaska.
  • South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula: Pacific coasts from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to Unimak Pass, Alaska.
  • Aleutian Islands: Unimak Pass, Alaska, to Attu, Alaska including the Pribilof Islands.
* * *
An undersea volcanic eruption occurred 40 miles off the coast of the South Pacific country of Tonga on Saturday.

Satellite imagery shows the eruption unleashed a massive shockwave as a plume of ash was flung 12.4 miles into the atmosphere.
US Storm Watch said the eruption was the "most violent" eruption ever captured on satellite footage.

Some have compared the eruption to the "Hiroshima" nuclear bomb explosion.

Shortly after the eruption, a tsunami warning was posted for Tonga. An advisory was issued for New Zealand's North Island. CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand (RNZ) said a tsunami hit Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, flooding coastal roads and properties.

RNZ said Tonga's King Tupou VI was evacuated from the Royal Palace, and residents were told to flee to higher ground.

One Tongan resident told Yahoo News the eruption was "catastrophic," and ash and rock rained down on the capital.

Twitter user Dr. Faka'iloatonga Taumoefolau posted a video showing waves coming ashore.
"Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent," he wrote. In another post, he said: "Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky."

Prof Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, told BCC this eruption is the biggest Tonga has seen in three decades.
"This is a pretty big event - it's one of the more significant eruptions of the last decade at least.
"The most remarkable thing about it is how rapidly and violently it's spread. This one was larger, a much wider lateral spread, much more ash was produced. I expect there to be many centimetres of ash that have been deposited on Tonga,' Cronin said.
251,791808
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jward

passin' thru
Evergreen Intel
@vcdgf555

46m

Thread. Tonga is not a good one. It's likely going to be historic.
View: https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/1482456874888826882?s=20

Hearing a lot of VEI 5 estimates being used. That may end up being conservative.
View: https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/1482459239478030336?s=20

View: https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/1482461954455183364?s=20

There is something that is being asked a lot, and that is the tsunami warnings being from last night thru now. Unlike an earthquake, the volcano is continuously erupting and could possibly generate further tsunamis. This is definitely something to keep watching.
Tonga is radio silent. It is a country with an estimated 107,000 people.
View: https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/1482468020987465730?s=20
 

jward

passin' thru
Volcanic eruption, tsunami: First images of devastating damage as Tongan residents warned air toxic, water contaminated
15 Jan, 2022 06:08 PM3 minutes to read

PM Jacinda Ardern said it's "too early to tell" whether anyone has lost their life in the volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit Tonga. Video / NZ Herald / Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau / Willy Baptiste Florian / Johnny Teisi / US StormWatch
NZ Herald

The first news and images are beginning to filter out of Tonga following the violent eruption of an underground volcano 65km north of the capital Nuku'alofa.
Last night's eruption sent ash and steam spewing into the sky while sonic booms have been reportedly heard as far away as Alaska.
Some first pics coming out of #Tonga post #Tsunami #volcanoEruption This is in the outer islands Pangai, Haapai. Roads ripped up. Seems some of those massive chunks are pieces of the seawall. #tongatsunami #TongaVolcanoEruption
Photos: Haloti Ulufonua, FB pic.twitter.com/QndVbTYtgo
— Josephine Latu-Sanft (@JoLatuSanft) January 16, 2022
It's also sparked tidal waves and tsunami warnings around the Pacific, with evacuations in Japan, Chile and Australia in low-lying coastal areas.

Thousands of people in New Zealand have been desperately trying to get in touch with their loved ones in the Pacific nation since last night, when people posted videos of black skies and people running away from surging waves.

There has been minimal word from Tonga since as power has been cut and communications are down.
However news is beginning to filter through. An unverified post to Tongan Facebook forum Live It TONGA said the tsunami warning was still active but the Prime Minister was allowing petrol stations, bakeries and shops to open from 10am-2pm today for necessities.
Impacts of the tsunami in Ha'apai, Tonga. Photo / Facebook

Impacts of the tsunami in Ha'apai, Tonga. Photo / Facebook
The air was toxic across Tonga but the good news was there were no reports of deaths, said the poster.

Tongan authorities had requested water, as the ash cloud had contaminated water supplies.

The NZ High Commission said north Nuku'alofa had been impacted, with large boulders washed ashore.

Pictures and video posted from Lifuka island in Ha'apai shows the water has subsided but large chunks of concrete, stones, trees and even corned beef are strewn across the ground.

Save the Children said the immediate concern was for air and water safety due to ash and smoke.

Day after… emerging to pick up the pieces… as Tongans always do.. and since it is Sunday folks even had time to go to church and praise the Lord for lives still intact. #Tonga #Resilience #tongatsunami pic.twitter.com/0NtRAKWc15
— Josephine Latu-Sanft (@JoLatuSanft) January 16, 2022
"The government has asked the public to wear masks and use bottled water for now," said a statement from the charity.


Save the Children has only a small presence in Tonga but more staff and resources in Fiji and Vanuatu and is standing by ready to give aid.

The New Zealand High Commission in Nuku'alofa was also monitoring the situation closely and was in contact with local authorities, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said.

"As yet there are no official reports of injuries or deaths. However, communications are limited.

"Damage assessments are under way and New Zealand has formally offered to provide assistance to Tonga." Aerial surveillance would be carried out as soon as conditions allowed, and an initial $500,000 was available for any immediate requests from the Tongan government.

"Communications links with Tonga have been disrupted so New Zealanders may have difficulties contacting their whānau in Tonga at this time," Mfat said.

There were 30 New Zealanders registered on SafeTravel in Tonga but others were urged to register through the www.safetravel.govt.nz website.



Video at source
Posted for fair use
 

jward

passin' thru
Certainly pray this proves true; they did have a lot of advance notice of the ongoing event, but doesn't sound like there is too much real height to their "high ground"

Anaseini Ulakai
@fineutuvai


At around 10pm to midnight DFAT received word from the Aus HC in Tonga that there were no casualties. Sea communication cables are damaged as a result of the volcanic eruption. Further and better updates will be available as the day unfolds. Source: DFAT Helpline.
 

jward

passin' thru
In this satellite image taken by Himawari-8, a Japanese weather satellite, and released by the agency, shows an undersea volcano eruption at the Pacific nation of Tonga Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground.

An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion in the Kingdom of Tonga on January 15, 2022, as seen at right in this image taken by a Japanese weather satellite.
Photograph by Japan Meteorology Agency via AP



The Tonga eruption explained, from tsunami warnings to sonic booms
The volcanic plume generated record amounts of lightning before producing a blast heard thousands of miles away. Here’s what geologists say drove the event—and what may happen next.

By Robin George Andrews
Published January 15, 2022

• 12 min read
Just a few weeks ago, a submarine volcano identifiable by two small uninhabitable islands in the Kingdom of Tonga began to erupt. Its outburst initially seemed innocuous, with ashen plumes and moderate explosions that few people living outside the archipelago noticed.
But in the past 24 hours, that volcano, named Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, forced the world to sit up and pay attention.
After a moment of calm earlier this month, its eruptive activity turned increasingly violent. The middle section of the island vanished on satellite imagery. Towering columns of ash began to produce record-breaking amounts of lightning.
About this map





“The thing just went gangbusters,” says Chris Vagasky, meteorologist and lightning applications manager at the Finland-based weather measurements company Vaisala. “We were starting to get 5,000 or 6,000 events per minute. That’s a hundred events per second. It’s unbelievable.”
Then, early in the morning on January 15, the volcano produced a colossal explosion. The atmosphere was blasted out of the way as a shockwave emanated from the island, radiating outward at close to the speed of sound. The sonic boom was heard in parts of New Zealand more than 1,300 miles away, with the shockwave eventually traveling halfway around the world—as far as the United Kingdom, which is located a staggering 10,000 miles distant.
To everyone’s horror, a tsunami quickly followed. It hit Tongatapu, the kingdom’s main island and home to the capital Nuku'alofa, just a few dozen miles to the south of the volcano. Communications were knocked out as the streets began to flood and people fled for their lives. Tsunami waves, albeit smaller ones, rushed across the vast ocean to parts of the Pacific Northwest, causing surges in Alaska, Oregon, Washington State, and British Columbia. Stations in California, Mexico, and parts of South America also registered minor tsunami waves.

Recent research on the geologic history of the volcano suggests that this powerful paroxysm is, on human timescales, a relatively rare event: Such an explosion is thought to occur roughly once every thousand years. The hope is that the worst of the eruption is over. But even if that turns out to be the case, the damage has already been done.
For Tonga, “this is a potentially devastating event, and it’s horrifying to watch,” says Janine Krippner, a volcanologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program. “I feel sick thinking about it.”
Scientists and a rattled public are eager to know what caused such a powerful eruption, and what may happen next. But information has been slow to emerge partly because the volcano is somewhat remote and difficult to observe up close.
“There are far more questions than answers at this point,” Krippner says. But here’s what scientists do know about the tectonic and geologic drivers involved, and what they might mean for the volcano’s future.

A volcanic powerhouse in the Pacific
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai is located in region of the South Pacific that’s jam-packed with volcanoes—some above the waves, some far below—that have a penchant for violent eruptions. Past events have unleashed city-size rafts of pumice or seen volcanoes blowing themselves apart only to build new islands immediately afterward.

0000016f-7d12-dcf1-a96f-fd12abaa0000_16x9.jpg


4:43
Volcanoes 101
About 1,500 active volcanoes can be found around the world. Learn about the major types of volcanoes, the geological process behind eruptions, and where the most destructive volcanic eruption ever witnessed occurred.
This profusion of volcanoes exists because of the Pacific plate’s continuous dive beneath the Australian tectonic plate. As the slab descends into the superhot rocks of the mantle, the water inside gets baked out and rises into the mantle above. Adding water to these rocks causes them to more readily melt. This creates a lot of magma that tends to be sticky and filled with gas—a potent recipe for explosive eruptions.

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai is no exception to this rule. The bits of land sit above a volcano more than 12 miles wide featuring a cauldron-like pit about three miles across, hidden from view by the sea. It’s been seen erupting with vim and vigor as far back as 1912, sometimes popping above the waves before being eroded away. The eruption of 2014-15 created a stable island that was soon home to colorful plants and barn owls.
When Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai started erupting again on December 19, 2021, it produced a series of blasts and an ash column 10 miles high, but it was doing “nothing out of the ordinary” for a submarine volcano, says Sam Mitchell, a volcanologist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. For the next few weeks, enough fresh lava erupted to expand the island by nearly 50 percent. And as the new year dawned, the volcano appeared to be calming down.
Then, in the last couple of days, things took a turn for the dramatic.

The volcano’s menacing maelstrom
As the volcano’s explosivity began to intensify, the amount of lightning emerging from its ashy plume began to eclipse not only that seen during this eruption, but during any eruption ever recorded.
Volcanoes can produce lightning because ash particles in their plumes bump into each other or into bits of ice in the atmosphere, which generates an electrical charge. Positive charges get segregated from negative ones, sparking a flash of lightning. (Learn more about how volcanoes can trigger lightning.)
From the outset, the Tonga eruption’s lightning was detected by Vaisala’s GLD360 network, which uses a global distribution of radio receivers that can “hear” the lightning as intense bursts of radio waves. During the first two weeks, the system recorded sometimes a few hundred or a few thousand flashes per day—nothing unusual. “It was clearing its throat, I guess,” says Vagasky.
There was nowhere else that was that electric on the planet last night.
Chris VagaskyVaisala meteorologist
But by late Friday into early Saturday, the volcano was producing tens of thousands of discharges. At one point, this Tongan volcano managed 200,000 discharges in a single hour. By comparison, the 2018 eruption of Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau had 340,000 discharges over a week or so.

“I couldn’t believe the numbers I was seeing,” says Vagasky. “You don’t usually see that with a volcano. This is something else. There was nowhere else that was that electric on the planet last night.”
It may have looked spectacular from afar, but up close it would have seemed apocalyptic, a constant blaze of light soundtracked by endless thunder and volcanic bellows. Most of the lightning wasn’t isolated to the plume but also hit the ground and the ocean. “This was extremely dangerous for anybody that’s sitting on any of the other Tongan islands, because you’ve got all this lightning coming down around you,” says Vagasky.
So why has this eruption produced what is likely to be a record-breaking number of discharges?
The presence of water always ups the odds of lightning, says Kathleen McKee, a volcano acoustic researcher at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. When magma mingles with a shallow body of water, the trapped water is aggressively heated and vaporized, blasting that magma into millions of tiny pieces. The more plentiful and the finer the particles you have, the more lightning you generate.

The heat of the eruption also readily transports water vapor into the colder, higher reaches of the atmosphere, where it becomes ice, says Corrado Cimarelli, an experimental volcanologist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. That provides plenty of additional particles for the ash to collide with and generate electricity.
But the reasons this eruption produced quite so much lightning are impossible to determine at present. “Unfortunately, the volcano is quite remote and there [are] few constraints on the atmospheric profiles in the vicinity of the plume,” Cimarelli says.

The Hephaestion hammer falls
The astounding amount of lightning wasn’t the only prelude to the volcano’s cataclysmic blast. By Saturday morning, satellite imagery had revealed the island was no longer building itself: The middle of the volcanic isle had vanished, likely thanks to the uptick in explosivity.
When it eventually unleashed a giant explosion, the shockwave ricocheted across the globe at breakneck speeds. It was immediately followed by a tsunami that slammed into several islands in the Tongan archipelago before racing across the Pacific.
Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist and volcanologist at Western Washington University in Bellingham, says the blast involved a “mind-boggling amount of energy.” But there isn’t enough data right now to ascertain the precise cause of the tsunami.

These events require displacing a lot of water, which can happen through underwater explosions, through a collapse event—when lots of rock suddenly falls off the volcano into the sea—or a combination of these and other factors.
With the ash column obscuring the volcano, and much of the volcano submerged underwater, scientists will need time to gather more indirect data before drawing any conclusions. Clues could come from the types of acoustic waves the blast generated or perhaps the redistribution of mass around the volcano.
“The jury is still out,” Caplan-Auerbach says, but the fact that such an intense explosion and potent tsunami came out of this single, relatively small volcanic isle “speaks to the incredible power of this eruption.” And although not the cause of the main tsunami, the shockwave itself triggered another big wave: The rapidly moving air impacting the ocean was powerful enough to force water to move out of the way, a phenomenon called a meteotsunami.
Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, adds in a recent blog post that clues about why this event was so intense can be found in the volcano’s chemistry, which changes as the magmatic fuel within evolves over time.

This volcano, like many others, must refill its magma reservoir after a major eruption. The last of those in the region happened back in the year 1100; ever since, molten rock has been accumulating at depth. As it becomes mostly full, small amounts of magma leak out of the volcano, which is likely behind the eruptions recorded since 2009.
However, Cronin says, “once recharged, the large amount of magma crystallizing starts to drive gas pressures up, too quickly for it to be released by small eruptions.” Something’s got to give, and when that vast supply of magma finds an opening, it violently depressurizes and much of the molten reservoir is evacuated in one big blast.

A foggy future in Tonga
The Tongan archipelago may owe its very existence to the infernal forces that constructed its islands in the first place, but it’s clear the cost of living on them can be steep. Only 100,000 people live in the kingdom, with about a quarter residing in the capital, and they are now besieged by ashfall and tsunami waves.
“The biggest unknown right now that really matters is we don’t know how the people in Tonga are,” Krippner says. This eruption, Mitchell adds, “could potentially be incredibly devastating to the country.”

So now comes the question everyone wants answered: “Is this eruption over?” Krippner says. “We don’t know.”
Such a terrifying outburst may represent the effective decapitation the volcano’s shallow magma reservoir and the speedy exsanguination of its molten contents, Mitchell says. This eruption will be extensively studied by volcanologists, which will only improve their understanding of future events and bolster efforts to mitigate their effects.
But it’s too soon to know for sure how things will unfold in the wake of this eruption. So for now, all eyes remain firmly fixed on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai.

video at site
posted for fair use
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Funny, not so funny. Someone yesterday on twatter commented on the situation and about the Tonganese people. Someone from Tonga replied back, we call ourselves Tongans. The idiot fool then replied "no you're not, you're called Tonganese". Have you ever been to Tonga? "No" then how do you know what we're called? The MSM was referring to them as Tonganese apparently.
 

jward

passin' thru
Nothing like a lily white east coast elitist for tellin' other folks what they really should think, feel, do, say and Call themselves eh?
:: watches eyes roll right outta my head n across the floor ::
 

jward

passin' thru
Second major eruption detected at undersea Hunga Tonga volcano
January 16, 2022 9:04pm

Second volcano eruption
Australia's Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested there was "significant damage" to the country's roads and bridges with the eruption. Facebook/Tonga Geological Service



More On: tsunamis




A second major eruption has been detected at the Hunga Tonga volcano on Monday, according to an alert from Australia’s Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

There were no casualties reported from the second eruption on Sunday night. However, evacuation measures are underway, Australian outlets reported.
The underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano violently erupted just three days ago on Friday, sending tsunami waves barrelling towards the isolated island nation and putting the entire Pacific rim on tsunami watch.

Tonga’s capital, Nukuʻalofa, is located 40 miles south of the eruption. The country’s 105,000 residents have been mostly cut off from global communications after telephone and internet links were damaged. Officials were working to contact those residing on islands closer to the blast.

The number of casualties have not yet been reported. Australia and New Zealand deployed surveillance flights to assess the damages. Relief efforts have been hindered by vast plumes of ash discharged during the eruption, according to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai Previous notable Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruptions happened in 2014 and 2015.Facebook/Tonga Geological Service
Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested no mass casualties and that the airport “appears to be in relatively good condition” but there was “significant damage” to the country’s roads and bridges.

Seselja said Australia is coordinating with New Zealand, The United States and France to send help.
While there are no confirmed reports of loss of life, a UK woman reportedly went missing after she was washed away, according to New Zealand state media station TVNZ.

The outlet reported that Angela Grover and her husband James, who operate a tattoo parlor in Nuku’alofa, had gone outside to get their dogs when the tsunami hit. James was able to hold onto a tree, but his wife and their dogs were washed away.

The Red Cross said it is responding with supplies to what it called the worst volcanic eruptions the Pacific has experienced in decades.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai
There have been no casualties reported from the second volcano eruption. Facebook/Tonga Geological Service

“Red Cross currently has enough relief supplies in the country to support 1,200 households with essential items such as tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen sets, shelter tool kits and hygiene kits,” said Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai erupted several times over the past few decades, with notable eruptions in 2014 and 2015 when it formed an uninhabited island. It began erupting again Dec. 20, according to the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program.
The volcano became increasingly explosive, discharging record-setting levels of lighting, meteorologist Chris Vagasky told National Geographic.
With Post Wires

 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Posted for fair use.....

How the Tonga volcano generated a shock wave around the world
Matthew Cappucci - 14h ago
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The Hunga Tonga volcano in the southwest Pacific erupted explosively on Saturday evening local time, producing a tsunami, sending ash 100,000 feet high and generating an atmospheric shock wave that rippled around the globe. The eruption was heard in Alaska, about 5,000 miles away, while an area the size of New England was blanketed by the ashen smoke plume.
How the Tonga volcano generated a shock wave around the world
© Rammb/Noaa/Nesdis Handout/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockHow the Tonga volcano generated a shock wave around the world

Underwater Pacific volcano sends tsunami waves to Tonga, cutting off contact with outer islands
The volcano is about 40 miles north of Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, near the international date line. Tonga, home to 105,000 people, can be found northeast of New Zealand and southeast of Fiji.

“We have a nightmare situation of an isolated community experiencing the effects of a large volcanic ash plume producing significant volcanic lightning, as well as a tsunami,” Janine Krippner, a volcanologist at the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, wrote in a Twitter direct message. “Seeing that ash plume, that volcanic lightning, and that tsunami leave me feeling sick thinking about the people being impacted by this large eruption.”

In addition to the more immediate and striking atmospheric effects resulting from the volcano, some have speculated that the volcano could affect Earth’s climate. Though experts are skeptical, atmospheric scientists continue to collect more data.

The eruption
Hunga Tonga, an underwater volcano, erupted in 2009 and in late 2014. Renewed eruptions ensued Dec. 21, 2021, with occasional spurts of activity during the following weeks. A particularly explosive eruption occurred Jan. 15, resulting in arguably the most remarkable and striking display of volcanic power captured by a weather satellite.

The plume towered to about 100,000 feet, roughly three times the altitude at which commercial aircraft fly. Thunderstorms flatten out at the tropopause, or top of the troposphere, the lowest level of Earth’s atmosphere, since a lid of warm air suppresses continued upward development. Hunga Tonga’s plume, however, was so buoyant that it was able to penetrate this layer and continue into the stratosphere before pockets of air and ash subsided once again. The bulge in the middle of the cloud mass where this occurs is known as the “overshooting top.”

Satellite imagery captured “gravity waves” rippling outward from where the plume punctured this ceiling-like layer in the lower atmosphere — like wavelets surrounding a stone tossed in a pond.

A prolific volcanic thunderstorm
Within six hours of the initial blast, the ash and smoke plume from Hunga Tonga covered an area larger than New England. Though night had fallen, the plume would have been thick enough to block the sun. Static discharges within the plume, which towered twice as high as Earth’s most fierce thunderstorms, yielded prolific barrages of volcanic lightning.

Lightning detection networks and satellites tallied more than 60,000 strikes in 15 minutes following the volcano’s initial blast, corresponding to nearly 70 lightning strikes per second. Few, if any, conventional thunderstorms could compare.

Notice, too, the bull’s eye-like pattern that emerges in the lightning data. That’s the result of the aforementioned gravity waves. As the waves pass by, upward motion is locally enhanced, boosting lightning rates. In their wake, air sinks, suppressing lightning activity.

A dangerous tsunami
The blast was powerful enough to generate a tsunami of several feet in Tonga and prompted tsunami advisories across Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia and much of North America’s West Coast, including in Washington, Oregon and California.

Video: Two people drown in Peru after Tonga volcano (Reuters)

A four-foot spike in water levels was observed in Port San Luis, Calif., and Arena Cove, Calif., reported a 3.5-foot jump. Crescent City, Calif., got a 2.7-foot spike, and a tsunami of 2.8 feet was seen in King Cove, Alaska.

In addition to an uptick in water levels, tsunamis can produce dangerous and erratic currents. They move across oceans faster than commercial jetliners.

Tsunami waves reach West Coast as National Weather Service urges: ‘Move off the beach’

Volcano’s explosion heard in Alaska
Experts at the National Weather Service in Anchorage and the University of Alaska Fairbanks confirmed that audible booms heard in the state early Saturday morning local time originated from the volcano. That means the sound traveled more than 5,000 miles.

“Dog and I woke up suddenly at 3:30 and now I know why,” tweeted Shan Cole, a writer based in Anchorage.

That means the sound traveled close to 800 mph, and instruments confirmed that much of the noise produced did fall within the spectrum of what humans can hear. That no sound was heard in Hawaii, closer to the volcano, suggests atmospheric conditions in or near Alaska played a role in reflecting the sound to the surface.
An atmospheric shock wave
An air pressure trace from a number of stations in Florida depicting the atmospheric shock wave as it rolled through. (NOAA/Matthew Cappucci)
An air pressure trace from a number of stations in Florida depicting the atmospheric shock wave as it rolled through. (NOAA/Matthew Cappucci)

In the initial satellite imagery surrounding the volcano, it’s easy to spot a ring of white radiating rapidly outward far ahead of the volcanic plume. That’s the atmospheric shock wave.

That shock wave traveled around the world, also moving faster than the speed of sound. In Florida, for instance, it could be detected as an anomaly in air pressure shortly after 9 a.m. That’s because the wave briefly spurred a jump in air pressure, meaning the atmosphere briefly weighed more as the wave rolled through.

Daryl Herzmann of Iowa State University compiled air-pressure data from sensors across the Lower 48 to illustrate the wave rolling across the country.

Potential climate impacts
Volcanic eruptions can release enormous amounts of sulfur dioxide and aerosols that, in large enough quantities, can cool the planet and work to snuff out a La Niña pattern. Though there was initial speculation that material released by Hunga Tonga could have a similar effect, some experts were quick to point to the magnitude of its release being simply too comparatively minute.

Simon Carn, a professor at Michigan Tech, tweeted that the sulfur dioxide “columns do not appear to be extreme” so far. It would need to be five to 10 times as dense to begin to have a measurable climate impact.

Alan Robock, a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers, noted that the amount of sulfur dioxide needed to cool Earth would be immense.

“Only if the eruption injects a lot of SO2 into the stratosphere, at least 1000 [kilotons, or thousands of tons] or more, will there be a climate impact,” he wrote in an email.

Satellite measurements show SO₂ quantities from the latest eruption were 400 kilotons. Robock said the eruption will “produce about 1/50 of the impact of the 1991 Pinatubo eruption,” or about 0.02 degrees (0.01 degree Celsius) average cooling.

Still, experts point to continued eruptions as something to monitor.

“We have no way of knowing when this eruption will be over,” the Smithsonian’s Krippner wrote.
 

jward

passin' thru
Subsequent reports suggest that this NY times article was in error and based upon an event that was actually part of the earlier eruption.


Second major eruption detected at undersea Hunga Tonga volcano
January 16, 2022 9:04pm

Second volcano eruption
Australia's Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested there was "significant damage" to the country's roads and bridges with the eruption. Facebook/Tonga Geological Service



More On: tsunamis




A second major eruption has been detected at the Hunga Tonga volcano on Monday, according to an alert from Australia’s Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

There were no casualties reported from the second eruption on Sunday night. However, evacuation measures are underway, Australian outlets reported.
The underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano violently erupted just three days ago on Friday, sending tsunami waves barrelling towards the isolated island nation and putting the entire Pacific rim on tsunami watch.

Tonga’s capital, Nukuʻalofa, is located 40 miles south of the eruption. The country’s 105,000 residents have been mostly cut off from global communications after telephone and internet links were damaged. Officials were working to contact those residing on islands closer to the blast.

The number of casualties have not yet been reported. Australia and New Zealand deployed surveillance flights to assess the damages. Relief efforts have been hindered by vast plumes of ash discharged during the eruption, according to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai Previous notable Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruptions happened in 2014 and 2015.Facebook/Tonga Geological Service
Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested no mass casualties and that the airport “appears to be in relatively good condition” but there was “significant damage” to the country’s roads and bridges.

Seselja said Australia is coordinating with New Zealand, The United States and France to send help.
While there are no confirmed reports of loss of life, a UK woman reportedly went missing after she was washed away, according to New Zealand state media station TVNZ.

The outlet reported that Angela Grover and her husband James, who operate a tattoo parlor in Nuku’alofa, had gone outside to get their dogs when the tsunami hit. James was able to hold onto a tree, but his wife and their dogs were washed away.

The Red Cross said it is responding with supplies to what it called the worst volcanic eruptions the Pacific has experienced in decades.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai
There have been no casualties reported from the second volcano eruption. Facebook/Tonga Geological Service

“Red Cross currently has enough relief supplies in the country to support 1,200 households with essential items such as tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen sets, shelter tool kits and hygiene kits,” said Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation.
Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai erupted several times over the past few decades, with notable eruptions in 2014 and 2015 when it formed an uninhabited island. It began erupting again Dec. 20, according to the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program.
The volcano became increasingly explosive, discharging record-setting levels of lighting, meteorologist Chris Vagasky told National Geographic.
With Post Wires

 

TxGal

Day by day
This likely is a climate-affecting eruption at over 98K feet; however, scientists seem to differ on effects that may occur. Below is a link to an article I posted this morning on the Grand Solar Minimum thread - post 4677:

Solar - Grand Solar Minimum part deux | Page 117 | Timebomb 2000

Also, below is an article on Volano Discovery. I'm not sure if it's been posted before, I'm trying to catch up with the multiple threads on this event:

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano (Tonga) activity update: latest measurements confirmed 30 km column height containing 0.4 Tg SO2 / VolcanoDiscovery

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano (Tonga) activity update: latest measurements confirmed 30 km column height containing 0.4 Tg SO2
Mon, 17 Jan 2022, 00:53
00:53 AM | BY: MARTIN

The eruption plume height detected by the OMPS lidar (image: NASA)

The eruption plume height detected by the OMPS lidar (image: NASA)

SO2 concentrations in the eruption column (image: Simon Carn/twitter)

SO2 concentrations in the eruption column (image: Simon Carn/twitter)

According to the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) lidar-based satellite, measuring the global distribution of ozone as a remote sensing method, it seems the eruption column height has been measured up to 30 km meaning that reached the stratosphere level.

The TROPOMI satellite-based measurements of SO2 concentrations in the atmosphere detected the total mass of about 400000 tonnes - not enough for climate impacts - in the impressive SO2 plume ejected by the volcano on 15 January.

Aerosol plumes (mostly tiny droplets of sulphuric acid in the stratosphere, as well as some very fine ash particles) have been traveling along vast stretches in the southern hemisphere.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
In addition to the more immediate and striking atmospheric effects resulting from the volcano, some have speculated that the volcano could affect Earth’s climate. Though experts are skeptical, atmospheric scientists continue to collect more data.

It can, it will, and it already has... the experts aren't nearly as expert as they believe themselves to be.
 
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