A volcanic eruption near the Kingdom of Tonga in January has been identified by measuring instruments as the largest eruption ever recorded in the atmosphere.
The assessment was presented in a number of scientific articles in the journal Science, quoted by the BBC.
The eruption of a volcano was much stronger than any volcanic eruption in the twentieth century or even any atomic bomb test conducted after World War II. Only the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 can compete with the Tonga eruption. It is estimated that this catastrophic event in Indonesia claimed more than 30,000 lives.
"Tonga was a truly global event, like Krakatoa, but now we have all these systems of geophysical observations and they have recorded something truly unprecedented for todayʼs data," said Dr. Robin Matosa of the University of California, Santa Barbara, author of one of the articles.
Scientists now have access to an extraordinary array of terrestrial and space instruments, including atmospheric pressure sensors, seismometers, hydrophones and a group of satellites that observe the Earth across the entire spectrum of light.
The colossal explosion in Tonga, which occurred at the end of several weeks of activity on the underwater mountain, caused several types of atmospheric pressure waves that spread over long distances. Echoes of the explosion were heard even in Alaska, which is 10 thousand km away.
- On January 15, a powerful volcanic eruption occurred near the Kingdom of Tonga. It caused a tsunami that struck Japan and Antarctica, and its shock wave circled the Earth twice. The scale of the eruption was recorded by satellites. The disaster affected 84% of the population of the Kingdom of Tonga.