Tonga’s submarine volcano that erupted en masse earlier this year remains intact, New Zealand scientists said.
The January eruption was the largest explosion ever recorded by modern sensors.
It was so powerful that the force lifted clouds over the UK 16,500 km away and caused small tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea.
The south-south volcanic eruption of Ha’apai. (NASA / Joshua Stevens / GOES / NOAA / NESDIS)
But structurally, the Hunga-Tonga submarine volcano Hunga-Ha’apai has not changed much, the research published this week showed.
Experts from the National Water and Atmospheric Institute of New Zealand (NIWA) said the new findings were “surprising” and “unexpected”.
NIWA scientists aboard a research ship have mapped the shape of the Hunga-Tonga eruption Hunga-Ha’apai (HTHH) and the surrounding seabed.
The leader of the expedition, NIWA Marine Geologist Kevin Mackay, said he was surprised by what he had seen in the sonar results.
“With such a violent explosion, the largest ever recorded, the entire volcano would have been expected to have collapsed, but that was not the case,” he said.
A three-dimensional map of the Hungarian submarine volcano built from multibeam data. (Image: NZ National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research-Nippon Foundation TESMaP](Supplied)
Mackay said while the volcano appeared intact, the seabed showed some dramatic effects of the eruption.
“There is fine sand mud and deep ash ripples up to 50 miles away from the volcano, with cracked valleys and large piles of sediment.”
In addition to the sonar survey, the researchers also studied the oceanic ecosystem around the volcano.
While the edges of the volcano are now laden with biological life, scientists found just 15 km away that fish and mussels were thriving.
“These surviving animal communities indicate what kind of life HTHH can repopulate,” said marine biologist Malcolm Clark.
Abundant marine life was found 15 km from the edge of the Hunga submarine volcano. (Image: NZ National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research-Nippon Foundation TESMaP](Supplied)
The January 15 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano about 65 km north of Tonga’s capital, Nukuʻalofa, has killed at least three people.
Reconnaissance aerial photographs show the extent of the damage in Tonga
The volcanic eruption sent unseen pressure waves around the world for six days and a tsunami wave.