An undersea volcanic eruption in Tonga in 2022 created a super tsunami and released energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT.
Simulation of the spread of the tsunami in Tonga. (Video: Steven N. Ward/University of California Santa Cruz).
According to new research by a team of scientists at the Rosenstiel School of Earth, Atmospheric and Marine Sciences at the University of Miami and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF), Tonga’s 2022 undersea volcanic eruption is more powerful. America’s largest nuclear explosion , Phys on April 15 reported. The new study is published in the journal Science Advances.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano (HTHH) released energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT in 5 explosions, the most powerful being 15 million tons. This is still behind the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear bomb ever tested, but far ahead of the largest US nuclear bomb – the B83 with the equivalent power of 1.2 million tons of TNT. The 2022 disaster is also stronger than the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which holds the record for the largest volcanic eruption since 1912.
The explosive eruption of HTHH in 2022 created a super tsunami with waves up to 45 meters high along the coast of Tofua island and 17 meters high in Tongatapu – Tonga’s most populous island.
In the new study, the team used a combination of satellite imagery, drone maps, field observations collected by scientists at the University of Auckland, and data from the Global Reef Exploration Program. of (KSLOF) to create a tsunami simulation in Tonga. The results showed that the complex topography of the area acted as a low-speed wave trap, creating a tsunami that lasted more than an hour with waves as high as 85 meters about a minute after the initial explosion.
This volcanic eruption released energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT.
The eruption of the subterranean volcano HTHH is comparable to the 1883 eruption of Krakatau, which killed more than 36,000 people . “Despite its large scale and long duration, the super-tsunami HTHH took very few lives. In our opinion, the main factors that led to this were the strange location, the raging Covid-19 (causing the number of visitors). reduced tourism), evacuation drills and awareness-raising efforts increased in Tonga in the years preceding the eruption,” explains Professor Sam Purkis, chair of the Rosenstiel School’s Department of Marine Geosciences. prefer.
The simulation also shows that the location of the eruption point relative to urban centers contributes to reducing the consequences. Only 6 direct deaths have been confirmed from the HTHH disaster.
“The 2022 event may have been a lucky escape, but other submarine volcanoes are likely to generate future tsunamis of similar scale,” Purkis said.
“The eruption offers many important lessons related to tsunamis, both past and future, in Tonga and elsewhere. The eruption is an excellent ‘natural laboratory’ for testing. investigate hypotheses and models that can be deployed elsewhere, helping to better prepare for future disasters, and better understand similar eruptions and tsunamis,” he added.