Cut off from the world: 'The concern at the moment is how little information we have and that’s scary,' New Zealand-based volcanologist janinekrippner with the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program says. Read more on the Tonga eruption
An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Jan. 15, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders in Japan and causing large waves in several South Pacific islands, where footage on social media showed waves crashing into coastal homes.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai lies about 65 km north of Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga. Scientists said the volcano – which last erupted in 2014 – had been puffing away for about a month before rising magma, superheated to around 1,000 degrees Celsius , met with 20 degree seawater on Saturday, causing an instantaneous and massive explosion.The island archipelago of Tonga lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region known for volcanic eruptions and regular earthquakes.
Tonga sits at the junction of two major tectonic plates, the Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate. The Pacific Plate is pushed west and sinks back into the mantle along a “subduction zone” as it reaches the Indo-Australian plate and the smaller Tonga Plate. Magma is formed above the subducting plate and slowly rises through the crust above, forming a chain of volcanoes nearby.
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