Tonga Underwater Volcano Eruption Breaks 2 Records Simultaneously — Dethrones Philippines' Mt. Pinatubo's Volcanic Plumes and Produces Major Lightning

Recent reports about the Tonga underwater volcano eruption said it crushed two records simultaneously. One is that the volcanic plume attained greater heights than any eruption ever caught in the satellite record. The other, the explosion produced an unparalleled number of lightning strikes, nearly 590,000 over three days.

A Space.com report said that the "combination of volcanic heat and the amount of superheat moisture" from the ocean made such an eruption unique.

According to Kristopher Bedka, an atmospheric scientist at Langley Research Center of NASA who specializes in investigating extreme storms, "it was like a hyper-fuel for a mega-thunderstorm."

In a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory, Bedka said the plume went 2.5 times higher compared to any thunderstorm they have observed, and the eruption produced an incredible amount of lightning.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano lies approximately 65 kilometers north of the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa, sitting within the so-called Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc, a line of generally underwater volcanoes running along the western edge of the Pacific Plate of the crust of Earth, as reported in Nature magazine.

The eruption started on January 13, launching outbursts that broke the surface of the water and producing a major lighting occurrence, a Reuters report specified.

Then, two days after, on January 15, rising magma from the Tonga underwater volcano met the seawater above the volcano, stimulating a sudden and massive explosion.

Such explosive outbursts can take place when magma rapidly expands; bubbles of volcanic gas captured within the magma help to drive such dramatic blasts up as well, and out of the water.

Underwater Eruptions

Typically, underwater eruptions do not discharge large plumes of gas and particles into the air. However, the Tonga outburst last month was an exception to such a rule.

Two weather satellites, specifically the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17 or GOES-17 and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Himawari, captured the extraordinary eruption from above, enabling scientists at the NASA's Langley Research Center to compute just how far the plume penetrated the atmosphere.

Scientist Konstantin Khlopenkov, from the NASA Langley team, said from the satellites' two angles, they were able to recreate a three-dimensional image of the clouds.

The team determined that at its highest point, the plume rose 58 kilometers into the air, which means it pierced the mesosphere, the atmosphere's third layer.

After a preliminary blast produced this towering plume, a secondary eruption from the volcano sent gas, ash, and steam more than 50 kilometers into the air.

Exceeding Mt. Pinatubo Record

During the early 1990s, the Philippines' Mount Pinatubo released a plume that extended 35 kilometers above the volcano, and until this recent Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption, the 1991 volcanic occurrence held the record for largest identified volcanic plume in the satellite record.

Essentially, when the highest portions of such plumes reached the mesosphere, they rapidly transformed into the gaseous state. However, in the stratosphere underneath, gas and ash from the volcano built up and spread to cover a 157,000-square-kilometer-area.

According to meteorologist Chris Vagasky from Vaisala, an environmental technology firm, "as the eruption plum hit the stratosphere and spread outwards," it seems to have made waves in the atmosphere.

Venky, together with his colleagues, are still investigating the lightning activity produced by the eruption, and he is interested in how such atmospheric waves influenced the lightning strikes' pattern.

A recent report about the Tonga eruption is shown on Landmark Joe's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Volcanoes in Science Times.