Tonga volcano: What do scientists think about its eruption?

Tonga is experiencing defining moments. The people are tryingas much as they can, Disaster recovery Due to the terrible volcanic eruption that covered the area with ash and water during Scientists are working hard to understand the effects of this volcanic eruption.

Although it seemed to be the largest volcanic eruption in the world in 30 years, they found it The Hongga eruption may not have a temporary cooling effect on the global climate, as happened with other big eruptions.

In any case Short-term impacts on climate in different parts of the world are not excluded, as well as possible interruptions in radio transmission, including those used by global positioning systems.

Scientists will have to study for years the phenomena of the shock wave caused by the explosion and the tsunamis it generated. It’s important to remember that Tsunami waves occurred not only in the Pacific Ocean, but also reached the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

“It’s not that we were unaware of volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, but that witnessing them with our modern set of tools is unprecedented.“, He said Laurie Dingler, professor emeritus of geophysics at Humboldt State University in California, told the New York Times.

The government described the eruption of the volcano as an “unprecedented disaster”., although it still It is difficult to determine the full extent of the damage because the blast cut off undersea communications cables and forced ash to close Tonga’s airports.

eruption of the submarine volcano named south, south and south, Throw Dangerous ash over the region, including the capital of Tonga, Nuku’alofa, about 40 miles to the south. Also, the capital experienced Tsunami four feet high and waves higher in several places.

volcano experts He made comparisons with the catastrophic eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia in 1883 and with The most recent large volcanic eruption, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, in 1991.

“Hunga’s eruption was as powerful as Pinatubo at its peak,” he said. Shane Croninvolcanologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. but nevertheless, The Hong Kong eruption lasted only about 10 minutes, and in the following days, satellite sensors measured 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide reaching the stratosphere.

“The amount of sulfur dioxide released is much less than that of Mount Pinatubo“, He said Michael manga, Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. So If the eruption of the Hong Kong does not resume And continue to be at the same level of strength, It will not have a global cooling effect.

This was said by Dr. Cronin The force of the explosion is attached to its location, about 500 feet underwater. “When superheated molten rock, or magma, hits seawater, the water instantly turns into steam, expanding the eruption many times. If it had been much deeper, the pressure of the water would have quelled the eruption.”

“The explosion produced an atmospheric shock wave that was one of the most unusual ever detected.“, claimed Corwin WrightAtmospheric physicist at the University of Bath in England. And he added: “We’re seeing a really big wave, the biggest we’ve ever seen in the data we’ve been using for 20 years. We’ve never seen anything completely cover the Earth like this, certainly not from a volcano.“.

Dr. Wright added that Although the wave occurred high up in the atmosphere, it may have a short-term effect on weather patterns closer to the surface, possibly indirectly by affecting the jet stream. “We don’t know very well. We are watching to see what happens in the next few days. It could just spread and not react.”

Atmospheric pressure wave and unusual tsunami

Tsunamis are generated by rapid displacement of water, generally by movement of rocks and soil. Large faults under the sea can generate tsunamis when they move in an earthquake. However, volcanoes can also cause tsunamis. In this case, the underwater eruption and crater collapse may have caused the displacement. “Usually one would expect this energy to decay with distance,” said Gerard Fryer, a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

This eruption caused tsunamis of the same size as the local wave, and for many hours, in Japan, Chile and the west coast of the United States, and eventually caused small tsunamis in other basins in other parts of the world.

“We know that the atmosphere and the ocean are connected. And we see a tsunami in the Atlantic. It didn’t travel to the tip of South America to get there.” The evidence is very clear that the pressure wave played a role. Dr. Dingler concluded that the question is what portion size is.

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