The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano recently shook the country of Tonga last January. The volcanic eruption caused a lot of tsunamis around the region. In addition, the tremor reached even the islands located in the Caribbean.
The atmospheric waves from the Hunga Tonga explosion were detected to reach the globe seven times. The volcanic materials that the giant ejected, such as the ash and dust particles, stayed for a short time in the lower mesosphere and stratosphere.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai 2022 Eruption
This picture on December 21, 2021, shows white gaseous clouds rising from the Hunga Ha'apai eruption seen from the Patangata coastline near the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa. - A huge dust cloud spewed out when a volcano erupted in Tonga this week could result in showers of acid rain across the Pacific kingdom, emergency authorities have warned.
Before the first quarter ended, scholars from the University of California Santa Barbara investigated how Earth experienced a massive volcanic explosion once more after decades.
According to a new study, the event likely primed when the underground structures of the volcano sank the molten rock, inducing a large volume of seawater to vaporize and intensifying what should have been a low-magnitude eruption the following day.
UC Department of Earth Science expert and co-author of the study Melissa Scruggs explained that the Hunga Tonga eruption is the largest explosion since the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.
Scruggs compared the data they collected from the January event with the Krakatoa explosion in 1883, reports PhysOrg.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, also known as HTHH, belongs to the category of stratovolcanoes. These exploding mountains are usually cone-shaped and are bigger compared to other volcanoes.
Stratovolcanoes are known to have periodic explosions, all with milder activities that could cause minimal damage in the nearby regions of the mountain.
The HTHH is part of a volcanic group, also known as the Tofua Volcanic Arc, aligned through the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. Below these regions are abundant magma that materializes through the natural cooking of rocks by heat and pressure.
The activity below these volcanoes pushes out water volumes and other volatiles of the layer. The same waters that were emitted from the bottom of the volcanos cool off the temperatures of the rocks above, blocking them from melting further and remaining in their solid-state.
However, the cooling of the rocks is responsible for the birth of a volcano chain located approximately 100 kilometers from the plate boundary.
Main Vent of Tonga Volcano Sank Under Ocean's Surface Leading to Catastrophic Eruption
The new study on the HTHH was driven by the desire of authors to uncover the reason behind the large, unexpected eruption. In the two weeks that preceded the explosion, the experts gathered and consolidated every data available from the site, from statistics videos, and even tweet updates.
The research found that the HTHH eruption began on January 15 at exactly 5:02 PM local time. According to an observation by the US Geological Survey, a seismic movement first manifested in the main vent location 13 minutes after the explosion.
The first two hours of the Hunga Tonga eruption were the most violent event. The strength of each burst faded until the volcano stopped spewing 12 hours later. The experts concluded that the ocean water was below the vent by Friday. When Saturday came, the vent moved under.
Like the concept of a shaken soda bottle, the volcano met all of the necessary factors that would shoot materials halfway to space and was more violent than we are familiar with.
The study was published in the journal Earthquake Research Advances, titled "Under the Surface: Pressure-Induced Planetary-Scale Waves, Volcanic Lightning, and Gaseous Clouds Caused by the Submarine Eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano Provide an Excellent Research Opportunity."
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