Tonga volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB

RockedBuzz
By RockedBuzz 6 Min Read

Tonga, the volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB

Hello, Welcome to the RockedBuzz News site! I will present you all the details of Tonga, the volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB here.

Tonga, the volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB

Tonga, the volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB We have explained the details of the news, step by step, below. Tonga, volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB Keep reading our news. Here are all the details on the subject.

Tonga, the volcano eruption was 500 times more powerful than Hiroshima – RB

SCIENCE

NASA on the eruption of the volcano of Tonga: with a power of approximately 10 megatons, the explosion was 500 times stronger than that of Hiroshima

20 January 2022

NASA researchers have provided an estimate of the power of the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano , which took place last 15 January near Tonga, Polynesian archipelago beyond 78 islands in the Southern Ocean Pacific.

According to what was reported in a long interview with the NPR broadcaster, it would be the ” worst volcanic eruption of the last 30 years “, and probably of the loudest eruption on the planet since 1883.

More powerful than Hiroshima

When it erupted in 2009 it conquered the surface forming a couple of islets, which were then joined by a tongue of land over a kilometer wide following another powerful eruption that occurred in 2014. The last eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano has again changed the appearance of that portion of the ocean that hides, in depth, the area subduction with the highest seismic activity on Earth .

Today only two small areas of the island remain, populated only by colorful plants and barn owls, which existed since 2014, while the other islands of the archipelago of Tonga – which instead have a population of about 100. inhabitants – remained insulated due to the extensive damage caused to submarine cables.

In an interview with broadcaster NPR James Garvin, the scientific director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center , quantified the extent of the event: the event showed a power “equivalent to approximately 10 TNT megatons “, explained Garvin.

This means that the eruption was 500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.

The roar was heard distinctly as far as Alaska: according to researchers from the US Geological Survey “it could be the loudest eruption ever since Krakatoa of 1883 “, among the most devastating of the entire modern era.

The volcano of Tonga: special surveillance

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano is already the subject of important research by NASA, which for some years has been studying the formation of the volcano, a submerged mountain larger than Vesuvius that “we do not know when it formed”, says Garvin .

And he adds, on the basis of the investigations carried out over the last few years, “if past eruptions of this type make sense” the scientist says “then not we should have another explosion like this for some time “- as if to say the worst is over.

It remains that it was a paroxysmal event of rare intensity: Dan Slayback , another scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, argues that the explosion was so powerful that it literally took away “pieces of neighboring islands “. According to Slayback, in the materials resulting from the eruption there was not only ash, but there were also “solid rocks, blown up”.

A further observation from the scientific community still comes from Dr. Michael Poland of the US Geological Survey , which underlines the exceptional nature of the event: “It had an outsize impact, much greater than what we would have expected if it had been a fully emerged volcano,” he said. The eruption of the Tonga volcano lasted less than an hour, according to the geology institute, so despite the huge impact of the event it did not immediate consequences on the planet’s climate are expected , unlike what happened for eruptions of similar magnitude but of much longer duration.

The volcano of Tonga remains under special surveillance therefore, and not only for NASA – which will continue the investigation by sending drones as soon as possible according to what Garvin reported. According to the US Institute of Geology, “the terrible event could be a watershed event for volcanology.”

Share This Article
Leave a comment