By: EFE Updated 20 Jan 2022, 23: 59 pm EST
The violent eruption of the Tonga volcano, which caused a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, is the loudest since the explosion of the mythical Indonesian volcano Krakatoa, in 1883 and that affected the planet’s temperature, according to New Zealand volcanologists .
The outbreak of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, a submarine volcano located in the waters of Tonga, caused atmospheric waves that were recorded around the Earth and that still “continue to go around the world”, the GNS Science geological institute points out in a statement.
“It could be heard from New Zealand, heading south, to Alaska, heading north,” says expert Steve Sherburn, emphasizing that the column of smoke and ash reached as far as the 30 kilometers high according to preliminary data.
Sherburn explained ca that this is due to the “low frequency” waves caused by the eruption and that they can travel “thousands of kilometers away from the source” the explosion of the Tongan volcano would be cataloged as the “most listened to” in the world.
The outbreak of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, which practically made the two islands that flanked it disappear, generated a tsunami that impacted several nations bathed by the Pacific Ocean, with waves up to 20 meters in Tonga, as far away as the United States, Chile , Japan and Australia, among others.
A natural phenomenon caused by a volcano of such force that it had not been recorded since the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, whose explosion in 1883 caused a tsunami with waves up to 40 meters and caused the global temperature to drop by 1.2 degrees.
It is scientific studies previously indicate that the eruption of Krakatoa generated the loudest sound ever recorded and a column of ash that reached 80 kilometers high.
Six days after the disaster, Tonga begins to come out of the isolation in which the eruption plunged it, which broke the communication cables with the island nation, and the first shipments of humanitarian aid begin to arrive.
The Red Cross estimates that some 80,000 persons, of the total 105,00 inhabitants of the country, have been affected by these catastrophes, where the distribution of water is a priority due to the contamination of aquifers.
A New Zealand Navy ship loaded with 1883,000 liters of drinking water and a desalination plant with the capacity to produce 70,000 litres.
Read more :
Tonga: why is it so difficult to send aid to the archipelago?
Tonga: new images showing the destruction left by the eruption and subsequent tsunami on the island
Tonga: why the submarine cables that carry the internet to the whole world and that left the island totally cut off are so vital and vulnerable