From January 14 to 15, 2022, the Kingdom of Tonga, located in the western South Pacific, suddenly erupted into a huge catastrophe that endangered the whole country.
Location of the Kingdom of Tonga on the map
During these two days, due to the sudden eruption of the submarine volcano of Hong Aha Apai Island in Tonga, the energy generated was like the simultaneous explosion of 1,000 atomic bombs on Hiroshima.
Satellite view of the volcanic eruption in Tonga
At the same time, after the volcanic eruption, there have been tsunamis in local areas due to the intensity of the impact, and many countries have also issued tsunami warnings, and even the entire territory of the Kingdom of Tonga will face the threat of natural disasters such as tsunamis and floods, and a large number of residents will go to high places to survive.
Volcanic incident in Tonga
After the eruption, due to the destruction of submarine cables, the Internet and communications in the Kingdom of Tonga were completely interrupted, and the outside world could not contact the Tongans for almost several days, countless people prayed for Tonga, and even for the plight of Tonga's disappearance, some people thought that the Kingdom of Tonga would disappear from the world.
Tonga
Of course, the latter's idea is still too exaggerated, Tonga, as a country that lives near volcanoes all year round, has encountered several eruptions on The Island of Hong Aha Apay a few years ago, but the first few times have not been as large as this month.
As of January 18, the Tonga volcanic eruption has killed a total of three people, including a British woman and two locals in Tonga, and may increase the number of casualties in the future, and there is no relevant data at present.
See The volcanic ash of Tonga from the sea
Under the care of the people on the mainland, the Chinese citizens currently living in the Kingdom of Tonga are safe and sound, and they are not too much danger.
According to the disaster briefing issued by the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga on 18 January, due to the volcanic eruption, the Kingdom of Tonga was hit by a 15-meter tsunami, resulting in heavy losses on the lower islands, and a large number of houses were destroyed, of which Even all the houses on Mangao Island were destroyed by the tsunami, while only two houses on the island of Foroy Fua stood alone on the island.
Sea water pours down on the island
The islands on which the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga are located are in slightly better condition than the two islands above, but about 100 houses have been damaged and 50 have been completely destroyed.
Nowadays, the equipment of the Kingdom of Tonga to contact the outside world is still a satellite phone, most of the other means of communication are difficult to contact the outside world, and the liaison officer even stays in the room for a few days, just to be able to obtain the satellite signal, through the satellite phone to contact the outside world to help.
According to international observational data, tarbe island in the kingdom of Tonga has even accumulated 5 to 10 cm thick volcanic ash, and these falling volcanic ash has affected freshwater resources, causing water pollution, and the people of the kingdom of Tonga can only use bottled water.
Especially in the case of such a serious disaster, the supply of medicines is already limited, and once someone becomes ill due to water pollution, it is likely that the lack of drugs will aggravate the disease and even endanger life safety.
New Zealand related websites reported on January 17 that the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga has restored about 80% of the electricity supply, but still can not connect to the outside Internet, New Zealand has prepared the Kingdom of Tonga on the 18th, fresh water, food and other necessary resources, and by two warships to support the Kingdom of Tonga.
Effects of volcanic eruptions in Tonga
Due to the continuous development of modern social science and technology, after the continuous eruption of the Tonga volcano this time, the country was able to detect the occurrence of the disaster for the first time through satellite equipment and other means, and also announced to the world the huge volcanic cloud photographed, which shocked the world and derived a variety of speculations.
Many people have compared the Tonga volcano to the Eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815, and according to relevant records, two hundred years ago, the eruption of Mount Tambora in India spewed out volcanic ash reaching an altitude of 45 kilometers, far more than twice the height of the Tonga volcano at 20 kilometers.
Today's Tambora Crater
The intensity of its eruption even reached a level 7 power, almost 50,000 Japanese atomic bombs bombed together on Mount Tambora, which directly reduced the height of Mount Tambora from the original 4100 kilometers to a height of 2850 meters, and lost 70 billion tons of mountain weight.
The Tambora eruption, which spewed a total of 140 billion tons of magma, lasted from April 1815 to July, and was the largest volcanic eruption ever recorded, with 22 centimeters of ash on it even at an area 400 kilometers away from the volcano, which was enough to show how terrible the eruption was.
The power of volcanic eruptions
In addition to the death of 71,000 people and a large amount of property damage caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora, a large amount of volcanic ash and sulfur dioxide filled the atmosphere, resulting in abnormal temperatures in the northern hemisphere the following year, and low summer temperatures in Europe, Asia and North America, resulting in huge losses to agriculture in various countries, and even famine in the Yunnan region of the mainland.
Therefore, 1816 is known as the "year without summer", this year is even the coldest year in the northern hemisphere since 1400, the average temperature dropped to 3 degrees Celsius, and summer snowfall has been recorded in Jiangxi, Anhui and other places on the mainland.
Therefore, after the eruption of the Tonga volcano, some people saw the shocking pictures taken by satellite equipment and thought that in recent years it will be another "summerless year", but experts have rejected this statement after analysis.
If the Tonga volcano does not erupt on a large scale in the future, then according to its current eruption volume, the impact on human beings and even the world is actually minimal, not much serious.
Submarine volcano before the eruption
Because in general, if we want to judge whether a volcanic eruption will have an impact on global temperature, we need to measure the amount of sulfate it enters the stratosphere, and only when the sulfur dioxide that is erupted into the stratosphere exceeds the million tons level, we can observe its impact on the Earth's climate.
The Tonga eruption is only about 5 magnitude, less than half of the stratospheric sulfur dioxide, or even only about 400,000 tons, although the eruption may continue for some time, the amount of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere will also increase to some extent, but experts say that the climate changes it causes usually only last 1 to 2 years, resulting in a short period of time temperature reduction.
At the same time, according to historical records, the volcanic eruption in the United States in 1980 produced more sulfur dioxide than the Tonga volcano, reaching about 1 million tons, but it only caused the global average temperature to drop by about 0.01 degrees Celsius.
In 1991, volcanoes in the Philippines erupted about 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide, about 50 times more sulfur dioxide than the volcanic eruptions in Tonga, but only caused the global average temperature to drop by 0.5 degrees Celsius.
In 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines
It can be seen that the current 40 tons of sulfur dioxide in Tonga Volcano are almost impossible to have a more obvious impact on the global average climate, so the "summerless year" claimed by many media is actually not true.
Some people think that the volcanic eruption of Tonga will pose a threat to agricultural development, but in fact, the reason why so many people starved to death in 1816 was that in addition to the impact of crop growth caused by climate change, part of the reason was actually the war of that year.
For example, many european countries had just ended their wars with Napoleon at that time, and sudden climate change caused food scrambles everywhere to begin, resulting in widespread famine.
Under the support of modern technology, various greenhouse vegetables and greenhouse cultivation technology have made human beings no longer rely too much on temperature, although the yield can not meet the huge population, but still can solve the key crisis.
For now, the current impact of the Tonga eruption is probably in a short period of time, the tsunami will block the route near the Pacific Ocean, and the volcanic ash that pervades the air will also make it difficult for flights from surrounding countries to take off properly.
An area covered by volcanic ash
According to data from the Australian Meteorological Agency on January 18, although three or four days have passed since the time of the eruption of the Tonga volcano, there are still a large amount of volcanic ash floating at an altitude of 12 kilometers to 19 kilometers, and even at a speed of 92 kilometers per hour to Australia 3,000 kilometers away, which will pose a certain threat to the country's aircraft navigation.
Coupled with the current global epidemic, I only hope that the people of the Kingdom of Tonga will be safe and sound, and will not face the harm of the epidemic under natural disasters.
The mainland is far from the Kingdom of Tonga, the impact is not great, the Chinese citizens in the Kingdom of Tonga are also safe to survive, the only thing we can do is to silently cheer for the Kingdom of Tonga.
People of Tonga
What kind of consequences the tonga volcanic eruption will eventually cause for human beings, because the time has just passed a few days, and there is a lack of certain data, we have not yet known.