Tonga: Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai eruption and tsunami

[Alan Mighty]

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wor...15-p59ohh.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-erupts-at-sea

Sailed by that volcano about 20 years ago, when it was just above the water.

[clownfishsydney]

Looked fairly bad in Tonga, waves (at least two I saw) came right into town. Tsunami alert for Sydney for 2115 tonight.

[Alan Mighty]

Aus Bureau of Met has cancelled the tsunami alert for the QLD coast, but is advising a land warning for Norfolk Island and alerts for Lord Howe Island and the NSW coast:

Queensland Tsunami Bulletin
New South Wales Tsunami Bulletin
Lord Howe Island Tsunami Bulletin
Norfolk Island Tsunami Bulletin

[laird]

I saw the clip on yt? Of the volcano going bang ,hehe glad I'm not close to that

[Alan Mighty]

A 'video' of the eruption, based on images taken from Himawari, the Nipponese weather satellite (press the play button):


https://www.facebook.com/NIWAWeather...92375490804054

[Alan Mighty]

And for those who prefer not to go near the Zuckerberg thing, the video clip of the eruption is also on the NHK news clip you can see here:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220115_17/

[Alan Mighty]

* 2017 story in the wake of the 2015 eruption:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-...y-mars/9257160

* 2022 eruption explained

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-...ings/100759488

[Alan Mighty]

Readers of Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock (https://www.nealstephenson.com/termination-shock.html) will be familiar with what is happening right now:

* the cloud of particulate matter injected into the stratosphere by the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano now covers part of the E coast of Australia;

* glowing red sunrises seen from points on the E coast of Aus.

See:

* courtesy of the Aus Bureau of Met, a satellite image showing the stratospheric cloud overlapping QLD; and

* photo taken this morning from Scarborough Marina of the red sunrise.

[Alan Mighty]

Late addition:

* Scientists warn further of the potential for sectoral collapse of the volcano. See https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wor...16-p59oka.html

[JPA Cate]

Thanks for the links, Alan.

Sure hope Oz and NZ can get help to them that they can receive. Made me wonder about VTO airplanes for these kinds of missions, where the landing fields may be out of service.

Ann

[formosa aus]

Sounds like Tonga, Fiji and lots of other Pacific nations are really struggling. Water and food shortages and internet broken. Casualty situation is uncertain. Aus and NZ are planning on sending C130 planes with aid but the airborne ash is a problem. Need water makers and possibly medical aid. Probably need shelter. Consider contributing to help any way you can. I believe there are only a couple of satellite phones and we have really no idea of the situation. Sounds like most of the dwellings on the north west of the main island of Tonga have been washed away. Lots of Tongans in Aus have no idea of how their family back in Tonga are tracking.
Anyone able to contact Tonga on HF to relay messages?

[GordMay]

Tonga's deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, asked for patience as Tonga's government decides its priorities for aid.
Any aid sent to Tonga would need to be quarantined, and it was likely no foreign personnel would be allowed to disembark aircraft, he said.
Tonga is concerned about the risk of aid deliveries spreading COVID-19 to the island, which is COVID-free.

[El Pinguino]

Any word from the Eastern Lau yet? This may extend beyond Tonga.

Ash will be a major problem, when Volcan Hudson popped in Chile in 1991 rather a lot of sheep and other livestock starved and died in Argentina due to pasture being buried under ash.

The current shockwave is doing laps
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/hun...T-170230Z.html

[Alan Mighty]

The ash cloud in the stratosphere is about to reach Darwin, according to BoM, moving about 90 km/h at 12-19 km high.

See: http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/volca...advisory.shtml

https://www.airlineratings.com/news/...oss-australia/

I've not read reports of deposits of ash or of rafts of pumice. Yet.

Scientists in Nippon are still puzzling - the tsunami reached the home islands of Nippon about 2 hours ahead of predicted. If anyone can predict tsunami, you'd think Nipponese could. So scientists in Nippon are speculating that something quite different happened - the pressure wave-generated tsunami of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai behaved differently from the more usual submarine landslide type of tsunami associated with earthquakes.

For a start (but not all of the story), see: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0sc/021000c

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Any word from the Eastern Lau yet? This may extend beyond Tonga.

I've read nothing much relevant.

See:
https://fijisun.com.fj/2022/01/17/ti...gers-evacuate/
https://fijisun.com.fj/2022/01/17/ac...concentration/


And of course (surprised you didn't ask): https://fijisun.com.fj/2022/01/17/pm...after-surgery/