Recently, the eruption of the submarine volcano on Aha Apay Island in Tongahun has triggered the world's sideways glances, this eruption released a capacity equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs, the tsunami caused by the volcanic eruption affected the entire Pacific region, and Chile, Japan and New Zealand on the Pacific coast have detected obvious tsunami waves.
To put it bluntly, this was a volcanic eruption that stirred up half the world. So, what happened to Tonga, which was at the center of the eruption? What impact did volcanic eruptions have on the world?
Eruptions of volcanoes
On the 14th local time, the Tonga volcano began to erupt, but it did not attract attention at the time.
The next day, the Tonga volcano underwent a powerful eruption, triggering a massive tsunami and an undersea earthquake that shook the world.
This time the eruption can be clearly observed even in outer space, and its explosive power is greater than all weapons known to mankind. After the eruption of the volcano, a large amount of gas wrapped in soot formed an extremely large mushroom cloud. The air mass rises rapidly through the troposphere in a flash, erupting at a height of at least 25 km and a diameter of up to five thousand m.
A clearly visible eruption from outer space
Dozens of kilometers away, cruise ships and field expedition members can clearly observe this shocking scene, in fact, the steaming mushroom cloud makes many people mistakenly think that the local atomic bomb has been hit.
At the time of the eruption, Tonga's Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Tanira Kura, happened to be near the eruption site, and they saw not only the ash column soaring into the sky, but also the strong discharge phenomenon in the sky - lightning and thunder in the ash column, which was very shocking.
The inhabitants of Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, fifty kilometers from the volcano, heard a loud explosion-like noise, and then the Tongans felt a strong tremor in the ground, and when people were still uncertain, the flood caused by the volcanic eruption had flooded into their homes, and the people who had just woken up from their dreams rushed to the highlands to escape.
Tonga today
Until the evening of the 15th local time, the volcanic ash in the Tonga area continued to fall, and the volcanic ash that had fallen on the ground covered the entire island, looking like the "lunar surface".
Due to the rupture of submarine cables near Tonga due to the earthquake caused by the volcanic eruption, and the volcanic ash that covers the sky affects the signal of the satellite system, Tonga is still in a state of "disconnection" across the country, and only some areas have made some contact with the outside world.
Although it sounds scary, if the residents of Tonga had found shelter in time, there should have been no serious casualties.
On the other hand, after the eruption, the island of Hong Aha Apay, where the crater is located, has been almost completely destroyed by the eruption. Nearby islands, Nuku and Tau, were completely submerged by the tsunami caused by the eruption.
Now Hon Aha Apay Island
Unfortunately, one of the two islands has residents, and it is hoped that the inhabitants of the island will survive smoothly.
Today's Tonga, although it has survived the shock wave of the volcanic eruption and the tsunami earthquake that followed, is still not free from danger, and the volcanic gas and the acid rain that may come may cause local casualties. At the same time, I also hope that all the staff of the Mainland Embassy in Tonga will be safe and sound.
Other effects of the volcano
This eruption has had considerable local and global impacts.
1. Economy of Tonga
For Tonga, the first and foremost is naturally an economic shock. Tonga's economy, dominated by agriculture, fishing and tourism, is generally quite backward and very dependent on economic assistance from neighbouring countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
Floods triggered by volcanic eruptions in Tonga
In the short term, Tonga's related industries will undoubtedly be hit hard, and the local economy will be seriously impacted. Tonga, which has been hit hard by the epidemic, will probably be even more sad in the next few days, which can be described as worse.
2. Air Oceania
A large amount of volcanic ash enters the stratosphere, and since the main component of volcanic ash is silica, the encounter with the aircraft engine will cause it to block and extinguish, resulting in accidents, so the entire aviation industry in Oceania will also fall into an aviation depression in the next period.
3. Global cooling
As large amounts of volcanic ash enter the stratosphere and spread around the world, haze clouds will form in the future to block solar radiation. It is equivalent to putting a large umbrella for the earth to block the sun. Haze clouds will form in about half a year, when global temperatures will cool down by a certain range, which may last for about two years.
4. Earthquakes and tsunamis
According to the U.S. Navy, the eruption caused a magnitude 7.6 earthquake, which triggered a massive tsunami.
Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the United States have issued tsunami warnings to quickly evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents near the coast, and tsunamis ranging from 0.1 to 2 meters in height have been widely detected throughout the Pacific coast.
Even as local authorities have responded, the tsunami that swept across the Pacific ocean left two people dead in Peru, three in the United States and one in Japan.
However, it is gratifying that the tsunami has no disastrous impact on the mainland, and due to the protection of the first island chain, the tsunami has reached the coast of the mainland when it is already "calm".
Tonga Volcano
Classification of volcanic eruptions
This eruption of the Tonga volcano was a super pliny eruption.
The name comes from Mount Vesuvius, which once destroyed Pompeii. When Pliny the Elder was killed after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pliny the Younger recorded and described the eruption. That's why we now call volcanic eruptions with "strong eruptions and massive magmatic materials" pliny eruptions.
This time, the base of the Tonga volcanic eruption is VEI5, and if the eruption continues in the future, it may reach the level of VEI6.
The so-called VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) is an abbreviation of the volcanic eruption index, which is a scale proposed by American scholars in the United States, which mainly calculates the intensity of volcanic eruptions based on the volume of ejecta.
Columns of volcanic ash shaded by the sun
The effluent volume of VEI1 is 0.00001 to 0.001 cubic kilometers, and for every tenfold increase in the volume of effluent, VEI is increased by one level, up to a maximum of 8.
For volcanic activity around the world, VEI1-3 occurs almost every year, for example, the aforementioned Mount Etna in Italy often erupts on a small scale, and the locals have long been accustomed to it. VEI4 occurs every few years, VEI5 occurs every decade, and VEI6 cycles between decades.
According to historical experience, VEI6 will have a greater impact on the global local climate, which is simply that the future will be cold for a while, but as the volcanic dissipation effect will fade, the whole process will last for about two years.
VEI7 will lead to a "summerless year", such as the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, which led to a rapid drop in global temperatures.
As for the most advanced VEI8 level, there has not yet been a VOLCANIC ERUPTION OF VEI8, but this does not mean that it is impossible, generally speaking, we think that several supervolcanoes such as the Yellowstone supervolcano may reach VEI8 once they erupt. This highest-level volcanic eruption could lead to mass extinction.
A few days before the eruption of Tonga, Wolf Volcano, far away on isabela Island in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, also began to become active, which means that the Pacific Ring of Volcanic Seismic Belt has entered an active period, and more volcanic eruptions may occur in the future.
Mount Fuji and Mt Mihara in Japan, Seven Star Rock and Fire Island in Taiwan, and Krakatoa Volcano and Pinatubo Volcano between the Philippines and Indonesia are all above the Pacific Ring Volcanic Seismic Belt. Of course, that's not to say they're going to erupt.