According to the British "Daily Star" reported on January 17, after the eruption of the submarine volcano on the devastating island of Hong Aha Apa in Tonga, the ash column was about 5 kilometers in diameter and 20 kilometers high, resulting in a huge cloud of volcanic ash hanging over the country. Large areas of ash clouds have now spread to Australia, flooding some parts of Queensland with ash clouds.
In addition, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, a 0.8-metre-high tsunami was recorded in Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, and 0.6-metre-high waves appeared in Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa. Over the weekend, the eruptions also issued multiple tsunami warnings to Fiji and Japan.
After the eruption of the Tonga volcano, it was recorded that a large amount of smoke and ash continued to spread above and outside the island of Tonga, and because the volcanic ash contained a large amount of sulfide, direct contact would make people feel uncomfortable in sensitive areas such as skin and eyes. A local meteorologist claimed he had never seen anything as terrible as the eruption of a volcano in Tonga, with reports of ash falling from the sky accompanied by the rumbling of volcanic eruptions.
Queensland is about 4,000 kilometres from a volcanically destroyed Pacific island, and residents of the area report a rare sunrise-like halo when sunlight is reflected off volcanic ash clouds. But the Queensland Government has yet to issue any air quality reports due to cloudiness.
The Tongan government issued a statement on the 18th local time, saying that after the volcano erupted on the 15th and caused a large-scale tsunami, the houses on an island in its territory were seriously damaged. The Tonga government has dispatched troops to deliver relief supplies to hard-hit areas and evacuate people in dangerous areas to cause secondary injuries in the later stages of fire prevention.
Yijun believes that as one of the strongest volcanic eruptions in the past 30 years, the impact of the Tonga volcanic eruption on the global climate should not be underestimated, and it is recommended that governments pay close attention to the volcanic trends in Tonga and make prevention and control mechanisms in advance.