The New Zealand and Australian militaries sent reconnaissance planes to the Pacific island nation of Tonga on January 17 to assess the extent of damage caused by a violent eruption of Tonga's submarine volcano late Saturday (January 15, 2022). Previously, a huge volcanic cloud of ash, steam and gas rushed into the atmosphere, making the assessment flight impossible.
New Zealand hopes to send a military transport plane to Tonga on Tuesday to airlift basic supplies, including much-needed water, to Tonga, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
Communication with Tonga from the outside world remains extremely limited or largely disrupted. The company that owns the only submarine fiber-optic cable connecting Tonga to the outside world said the cable was likely to break in the eruption and could take weeks to repair. The loss of this cable has left the vast majority of Tongans unable to use the Internet or make international calls.
The few with access to the outside world describe Tonga as a whole like the surface of the moon, with volcanic ash contaminating the water supply, making freshwater a much-needed commodity. Residents have already started cleaning up the ash and tsunami damage. Authorities asked residents to wear masks and drink bottled water.
New Zealand, Australia, the United States and other countries have indicated that they will provide assistance to Tonga, which has a population of more than 100,000. A complicating factor for international relief, though, is that Tonga has so far largely avoided a Covid-19 outbreak. New Zealand says all military personnel are fully vaccinated and are willing to comply with Tonga's quarantine requirements.
The tsunami wave, which was about 3 feet high, hit the coast of Tonga, the report said, and the tsunami also hit the Pacific coast. Two people were drowned in Peru and there were minor damages from New Zealand to Santa Cruz in northern California.
Scientists say they don't think the Tonga undersea volcanic eruption will have a major impact on the global climate.
Huge volcanic eruptions release huge amounts of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, sometimes causing temporary global cooling. However, the Associated Press quoted an expert's assessment as saying that preliminary satellite measurements showed that the sulfur dioxide released by the Tonga eruption may have caused only 0.02 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 0.01 degrees Celsius, to lower the global average temperature.
According to the report, David Schneider, coordinator of the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, said that it is very rare for a volcanic eruption to affect the entire Pacific Basin, and the sight of its eruption is both small and terrifying.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Tonga submarine eruption is equivalent to a magnitude 5.8 earthquake. Scientists say tsunamis caused by volcanic eruptions are relatively rare.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, about 65 kilometers north of Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, protrudes 300 feet above the sea and has erupted several times in recent years. part of the world's most active volcanic belt. The volcano began to smoke on January 7 and erupted violently on January 15, causing a tsunami from Japan to California in the United States.
The Washington Post reported that volcano experts said the Tonga eruption may be just a "warm-up", and there may be further volcanic activity, leading to major volcanic activity lasting weeks or even years.