A volcano erupted violently on the South Pacific island nation of Tongahun Aha Apay, with the BBC reporting that ash had soared 20 kilometers high, with a loud explosion that made residents of the Tongan capital think that a terrorist attack had occurred, while the subsequent tsunami had partially submerged the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa.
Volcanic eruption in Tonga: how serious is it?
Mere Taufa, a Tonga resident, said that when the volcano erupted, her family had just prepared for dinner, and her brother thought that there was an explosion of a terrorist bomb nearby, which was very loud and accompanied by the vibration, making her scream and try to hide under the table.
But not long after that, she found the exclamations of the surrounding people, because the water was flooding the embankment and rushing into her home, the tsunami came, they rushed out of the house, everyone rushed to the heights, all around were screams, fortunately the tsunami was not so strong, otherwise her home was so close to the sea, there was no chance of escape.
Where did the volcano erupt?
The erupting volcano, located about 56 kilometers north of The Island of Hon Aha Apay, about 56 kilometers north of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, had an eruption on December 20 last year, but that time it was less powerful than this one, and according to information tracked by volcanoDiscovery, the volcano has entered a high magma eruption phase, which is at least seven times more powerful than the last time.
According to the Tonga Geological Department, the scale of the eruption is quite large, and the volcanic ash and the large amount of gas spewed out form a huge mushroom cloud, the top of which reaches a height of 20 kilometers, and the Tongan capital can be seen directly, as if it is a scene of doom.
The Pacific island nations of Fiji, Vanuatu, New Kristonia, New Zealand and even Australia, more than 3,000 kilometers away, near Tonga have issued tsunami warnings, but fortunately the tsunami level is not particularly high, except for the tonga capital Nuku'alofa, which is slightly more serious, and the impact in other areas is not large.
The video posted by @JTuisinu on Twitter is quite serious if true
Professor Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, said the eruption was the most violent eruption in Tonga's 30 years, the impact of the tsunami had passed, but it was followed by a stormy volcanic ash deposition, which the professor expected to suffer a large amount of ash deposition.
Gravitational waves form on the plume during eruptions
Tonga is located in the south latitude of about 20 °, located in the southeast trade wind belt, the high wind direction of this position is blowing westward, the future of Tonga volcanic ash should settle near Fiji and New Credonia, of course, the ocean will also settle, but its impact on the city will be relatively large on land.
When the air in the subtropical high pressure in the southern hemisphere moves northward, it is affected by the earth's rotational deflection force, and the air movement is biased to the left of the pressure gradient force, forming a southeast wind, so it is called the southeast trade wind belt, which causes the volcanic ash of Tonga to move northwest.
Such a large-scale volcanic eruption: how big is the impact on the earth?
The Southern Hemisphere happens to be summer, and on January 13, Western Australia was just hit by a rare heat wave of 50.8°C, which is the high temperature extreme in the history of the Southern Hemisphere, so the volcanic eruption in the Southern Hemisphere released a lot of heat, and the future will be hotter?
In fact, the answer may exist in two extremes, if in the short term it will erupt a large amount of volcanic ash to form an aerosol into the stratosphere and reflect a large amount of sunlight, and eventually make the earth in the short term to obtain solar radiation significantly reduced, thus forming a "nuclear winter" effect, such as The Tambora Volcano in 1815 caused a summerless year in the second year, which is the shielding power of volcanic ash.
But in the long run, the carbon dioxide it erupts will be released in the atmosphere, which is a very strong greenhouse gas, the IPCC said that the greenhouse gas in the carbon dioxide accounted for the vast majority of the proportion, large-scale volcanic eruptions may spew out hundreds of millions of tons or more of carbon dioxide, which caused the greenhouse effect is very considerable, directly dragging the earth into the "hot earth".
For example, the eruption of Mount Langria in Canada 58 million years ago directly caused the Earth to experience millions of years of "high temperatures", and the average temperature in its equatorial region was 5 to 10 degrees Celsius higher than it is now, and the Titan Python was born at that time, this 14-meter-long python weighing 1.2 tons is the largest snake in geological history.
Don't think this can't happen, Tonga's volcanic eruption is not large enough to reach this level, but the Yellowstone volcano in the United States is likely to be OK, the last time it spewed out material as high as 1000 cubic kilometers, compared with 4 cubic kilometers, if it erupts, it is estimated that human civilization may go back a hundred years!
Reference: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60007119