The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in January, in which three people died, was the biggest explosion ever recorded. | Laura_R_Chung
The Tongan volcano blast in January saw water vapour 10 per cent of the water already present in that atmospheric layer ejected.Waters off the coast of Antarctica continue to warm.When an underwater volcano erupted off Tonga this year, blanketing much of the island in a plume of ash and sending a tsunami sweeping across the world, it also blasted enough water vapour into the atmosphere to increase global average temperatures temporarily.
Volcanic eruptions rarely inject much water into the stratosphere. In the 18 years that NASA has been taking measurements, only two other eruptions sent somewhat similar amounts of water vapour to such a high altitude - the 2008 Kasatochi event in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile. In both of these events, the water vapour dissipated quickly, although the vapour associated with the Tongan event is likely to remain in the atmosphere for several years.
“We know the climate is changing and we are already seeing the impacts of that in all of these parts of the climate system,” she said. The research also found significant pockets of warmer waters in once deeper and cooler water, which could affect the stability of the ice sheet.
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