The force of the volcanic eruption in the archipelago of the Tonga islands, which occurred on January 15, far exceeded the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Japan).
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the volcano Southern-Ha’apai people released a smoke mushroom that reached a height of 40 km after its eruption, which was heard as far away as Alaska, more than 9,000 km away, and caused a tsunami.
The Nasa stated that this eruption it was several hundred times more powerful than the US atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, in August 1945, which was estimated at 15 kt (one kiloton equals 1,000 tons) of TNT.
“We calculated that the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to between 5 and 30 mt (one megaton = 1,000 kt)”, said NASA scientist Jim Garvin, in a publication released this Sunday night.
The agency said the eruption “annihilated” the volcanic island located 65 km north of the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa.
Something so far “never experienced”
The natural catastrophe covered the island kingdom with a layer of toxic ash, with a population of about 100,000 people. polluting drinking water, destroying agricultural crops and completely razing at least two villages.
Claimed at least three lives in Tonga and caused two bathers to drown in Peru, whose shores were lashed by waves of a tsunami to exceptional height caused by the eruption.
The Peruvian authorities They announced an “environmental emergency” of 90 days in the coastal area, damaged by a spill of 6,000 barrels of crude a week ago, that continues to expand and contaminate the region to the despair of its inhabitants.
In Tonga, the magnitude of the damage is still uncertain, among other reasons, because communications continue to be interrupted. Its impact “far exceeded anything else that people here have experienced”Nuku’alofa resident journalist Mary Lyn Fonua told AFP.
“The shock wave of the eruption shook our brains”, he stated, adding that the layer of very fine grayish ash that covers everything makes life difficult for the inhabitants.
“It seeps everywhere (…), it irritates the eyes, it produces sores at the corner of the mouth, everyone has blackened fingernails. We look like a bunch of filthy people,” he said.
defense forces of JapanNew Zealanders and Australians are providing emergency aid, including clean water, while maintaining strict COVID-19 protocols to preserve the archipelago from the pandemic.