Underwater Tongan Volcano Eruption Largest Ever Recorded
November 21, 2022
PHOTO: AFP / National Institute of Information and Communications
The eruption of an underwater Tongan volcano in January has been confirmed as the largest ever recorded.
New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) led the investigation.
NIWA found the volcano Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai emitted the biggest atmospheric explosion recorded on Earth in more than 100 years.
It caused 10 cubic kilometres - the equivalent of 2.6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools - of seafloor to be displaced and destroyed the ecosystems around the volcano.
Project leader and marine geologist Kevin Mackay said the eruption reached record heights and the material it produced circulated the atmosphere for months.
“[It was] the first we’ve ever seen to break through into the mesosphere. It was like a shotgun blast directly to the sky,” he said.