Route route links
- world
- news
The deafening eruption sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and produced an atmospheric wave that traveled several times around the world.
Author of the article:
The eruption of an undersea volcano off Tonga, which prompted a tsunami warning for several South Pacific island nations, is seen in a NOAA GOES-West satellite image taken at 0500 GMT on the 15 January 2022. Photo by CIRA/NOAA / via REUTERS
Content of the article
WASHINGTON — The powerful underwater eruption Jan. 15 of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in the South Pacific produced a plume that rose higher into Earth’s atmosphere than any on record, about 35 miles (57 km) , as it spread further. halfway to space, researchers said Thursday.
Advertisement 2
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
The gray-white plume unleashed by the eruption on the Polynesian archipelago became the first documented to penetrate a cold layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere, according to scientists who used a new technique using multiple satellite images ·bed to measure your height.
Sign up for The Canucks Report newsletter, delivered directly to your inbox at the start of each series. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat.
By clicking the sign up button, you agree to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don’t see it, check your junk folder.
The next issue of Canucks Report will be in your inbox soon.
We encountered a problem registering you. Please try again
Content of the article
The plume was composed mostly of water with some ash and sulfur dioxide mixed in, said atmospheric scientist Simon Proud, lead author of the research published in the journal Science. Eruptions from terrestrial volcanoes tend to have more ash and sulfur dioxide and less water.
The deafening eruption sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and produced an atmospheric wave that traveled several times around the world. (See related graphic)
Advertisement 3
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
“For me, what was impressive was how quickly the eruption happened. It went from nothing to a cloud 57 kilometers high in just 30 minutes. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to see from earth,” said Proud, a member of Britain’s National Earth Observation Center who works at the University of Oxford and the STFC RAL space.
“Something that fascinated me was the dome-like structure in the center of the umbrella plume. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” added Oxford atmospheric scientist and study co-author Andrew Prata.
Damage and loss of life—six deaths—was relatively low due to the eruption’s remote location, although it wiped out a small, uninhabited island. Tonga is an archipelago of 176 islands with a population of just over 100,000 people, located southeast of Fiji and just west of the International Date Line.
Advertisement 4
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
“It could have been a lot worse,” Proud said.
The plume extended through the lower two layers of the atmosphere, the troposphere and stratosphere, and about 7 km into the mesosphere. The top of the mesosphere is the coldest place in the atmosphere.
“The mesosphere is one of the upper layers of our atmosphere, and it’s generally pretty quiet — there’s no familiar climate up there, and the air is very dry and extremely thin,” Proud said. “It’s one of the least understood parts of the atmosphere because it’s so hard to get to. Lower down, we can use airplanes. Higher up, we have spacecraft. A lot of meteors burn up in the mesosphere, and it’s also home to of noctilucent (night-glow) clouds, which are sometimes visible in the summer sky toward the poles.”
Advertisement 5
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
Content of the article
The plume was far from reaching the next atmospheric layer, the thermosphere, which begins about 53 miles (85 km) above the Earth’s surface. A boundary called the Karman line, about 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface, is generally considered the boundary with space.
To date, the highest recorded volcanic plumes were from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, at 25 miles (40 km), and the 1982 eruption of El Chichón in Mexico, at 19 miles (31 km ). Volcanic eruptions in the past likely produced higher plumes, but they occurred before scientists could make such measurements. Proud said the 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia probably also reached the mesosphere.
Scientists were unable to use their standard temperature-based technique of measuring a volcanic plume because the January eruption exceeded the maximum height for which this method could be used. Instead, they turned to three geostationary weather satellites that took images every 10 minutes and relied on what’s called the parallax effect: determining the position of something by viewing it along multiple lines of vision
“In order for the parallax approach that we use to work, you need multiple satellites in different locations, and it’s only in the last decade or so that this has become possible on a global scale,” Proud said .
(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
Share this article on your social network
Advertisement 1
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.
comments
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil discussion forum and encouraging all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour to be moderated before appearing on the site. Please keep your comments relevant and respectful. We’ve enabled email notifications: You’ll now receive an email if you get a reply to your comment, there’s an update to a comment thread you’re following, or if a user you’re following comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.