The underwater Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, roughly 18 miles southeast of one of Tonga in the Pacific ocean, erupted twice. The eruptions took place on Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15. The eruptions caused massive damage and tsunamis that affected Hawai’i, Japan, New Zealand, and other countries, as well as Tonga’s largest island, Tongatapu.
“We come up with a number that’s around 10 megatons of TNT equivalent,” James Garvin, the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR. “That means the explosive force was more than 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.”
At 5:26 pm on Saturday, the island’s volcano violently erupted for the second time. According to geophysicist Michael Poland, “The blast was heard as far away as Alaska and was probably one of the loudest events to occur on Earth in over a century.” The underwater explosion lasted for around eight minutes and sent ash flying over 60,000 feet into the sky.
The blast was so massive that it destroyed a new island created by volcanic activity in 2014 and 2015 called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which also connected two older islands near each other. The explosion also took chunks off of other islands nearby. “They weren’t ash — they were solid rock, blown to bits,” NASA research scientist Dan Slayback says. “It was quite amazing to see that happen.”
The eruption caused a four-foot tsunami to slam into Tonga, immediately severing any underwater connection lines to the rest of the world. As a result, the actual extent of the damage is unknown, but images from overhead have revealed layers of volcanic ash covering everything, as well as extensive damage to the island overall.
Two of the islands have been completely evacuated due to the damage, but the Red Cross UK aims to help the islands. The Red Cross said during their attempt to aid the country, “From what little updates we have, the scale of the devastation could be immense – especially for outer lying islands. But local Red Cross teams are well placed to respond quickly to emergencies like this.”
As of now, three civilians have been confirmed dead, and about 84,000 (or 84% of the population) were impacted by the events. UN News tells concerned readers, “In an update released on Thursday, OCHA confirms that the whole economically vital agricultural sector, including crops, livestock and fisheries, have suffered substantially. The agency is particularly concerned with the effect of ashfall on crops along with saltwater intrusion, and the potential of acid rain.” Groundwater is also a major worry of the OCHA, as there are many questions remaining on water quality and access to groundwater.
Most of Tonga remains silent as relief efforts continue, and the extent of the damage has yet to be revealed. Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation, said “We are determined to provide the extra resources and support they may need in the face of such a devastating disaster.” Many different organizations are collecting funds to help the islands, including this Go Fund Me. Barstow students and teachers are welcome to donate to this fund if they wish.
