Eruption Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapairegistered on January 15, 2022, classified as largest in the 21st century researchers from the University of Grenoble-Alpes, France. The event was assigned a scale of 6 – out of a maximum of 8 – in Volcanic Explosivity Index (IEV).

At that time, the explosion generated large waves in the capital of Tonga, formed clouds of gas, dust and ash that reached the mesosphere, and atmospheric shock waves spread across the planet. Tsunamis have also been reported in the Caribbean.

During the eruption, more than 200,000 lightning strikes were seen in the area of ​​the incident within an hour. Due to the rupture of the archipelago’s only communication cable, many islands in the Pacific Ocean were left without communication with the outside world.

The IEV indicated a scale of 6 for the Tonga event, which is expected to erupt every 50-100 years. Explosions at level 8 – the last in the dimension – are very rare and occur on average every 50,000 years.

According to a study published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, the algorithm is new and is able to estimate the size of such incidents in less than two hours after they occur. The speed of analysis will help to assess the consequences and ways to eliminate them more quickly.

Remember how Hunga Tong blew up

During the Hunga Tong eruption, researchers around the world worked to understand why the magnitude was so high.

According to an article in Earthquake Research Advances, the explosion the day before would have sunk its main “pipe” under the ocean’s surface, “preparing” it for the event we are all witnessing.

In other words, molten rock was thrown into the sea, causing it to evaporate and combine with ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. This could explain the intense lightning discharges, which accounted for about 80% of all recorded on the planet at that time.

The eruption peaked in the first 120 minutes, and the eruption ended about 12 hours later. Nearly two cubic kilometers of materials were sent into space, scientists say, responsible for the wave effects felt around the world.

The eruption threw ash and gases into the mesosphere

Our atmosphere has five layers. We live in the troposphere, the lowest. Above are the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. And it was in the mesosphere, located at an altitude of 50 km above the earth’s surface, that Hunga Tong threw out ash and gases from its eruption.

The highest height of the smoke cloud recorded by the Himawari satellite of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES in English) was 58 km, which exceeds the mesosphere limit of 15 km.

According to a tweet by NASA staffer Joshua Stevens, the height of the explosion is likely the record for the “satellite era”, the period when humanity began to observe and measure various phenomena through the use of this equipment.

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Source: Gizmodo, Olhar Digital.