A scientific team from the United States and New Zealand has shown through a series of simulations that the volcanic eruption that occurred in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in January 2022 was the loudest explosion of natural origin among those registered in more than a centurybeing only comparable to that of a high-power nuclear test.
The researchers’ article, published in the journal Science on April 14, focuses on the last of the five explosions that occurred during the eruption of January 15, 2022 and establishes that had the magnitude of 15 megatons. The previous one, within the same series, was around 4 megatons, while the rest were below this figure. The power of this event defies the volcanic explosion of Krakatoa, which caused more than 36,000 deaths in 1883, although this new outbreak only claimed four human lives in the affected archipelago, which forms the Kingdom of Tonga.
From the previous analyzes of that eruption of the volcano Tonga-Hunga Sa’apai it is known that it was “one of the most violent eruptions ever captured by satellite”. The new study provides a more accurate estimate of the scale of the mega-tsunami that the series of explosions caused that same day and generated waves up to 45 meters on Tofua Island and 17 meters on Tongatapu, the most populated island. However, the fatality balance does not exceed four human victims, which is due to various preventive measures, including those related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the authors.
“Despite its size and long duration, the mega-tsumani that erupted from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai claimed few lives,” said University of Miami professor and expert in Marine Geosciences Sam Purkis, in a statement. first author of this study. In his opinion, last year’s eruption holds “important lessons for past and future tsunamis in Tonga and beyond.”
Speaking to The Washington Post, this same geophysicist compares the powerful natural event with the effects of nuclear weapons. “The only way to cause an explosion of this size is with a hydrogen bombsays Purkis. The newspaper draws the conclusion that this is the strongest explosion of all those of natural origin in the previous century and also of all the nuclear explosions carried out by the US.
- The ‘Tsar Bomb’, designed in the Soviet Union in 1961, had a power of 50 megatons and was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated.
- The University of Oxford estimated last November that the eruption in Tonga released into the atmosphere the largest column of gases on record. It rose to about 57 kilometers above the surface of our planet.
- At NASA they estimated that the water evaporated into the stratosphere on January 15, 2022, equivalent to more than 58 thousand Olympic swimming pools, could warm the Earth considerably. (RT News)