Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai Eruption

Episode Date: January 22, 2022

Subscribe to the podcast!  https://podfollow.com/everythingeverywhere/ On January 15, 2022, one of the biggest geologic events in the last 30 years occurred.  The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in the nation of Tonga erupted. It wasn’t just a volcanic eruption, however,  It was an event that actually had repercussions all around the world.  Learn more about the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption, why it happened, and what it means for Tonga and the world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. -------------------------------- Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EEDailyPodcast/ Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On January 15, 2022, one of the biggest geologic events in the last 30 years occurred. The Hungatonga-Tonga-Hapai volcano in the nation of Tonga erupted. It wasn't just a volcanic eruption, however. It was an event that actually had repercussions all over the world. Learn more about the Hungat-Tonga-Hunga-Hupai eruption, why it happened and what it means for Tonga in the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow.

That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night,

this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. If you've been listening to this podcast long enough, you know that this show is not about current events. There is more than enough content online that covers the news, and I don't think we really need another one. However, I want to do something a bit different in this episode

and cover something that happened just last week. You've probably seen some of the astonishing satellite photos from the volcanic eruption in the nation of Tonga in the last few days. It really was quite an amazing thing to see, and the very fact that it could be observed by satellite, let alone so obviously visible from space, was an indication of just how powerful an event it was. I've traveled pretty extensively around the world, and one of the things that this has done for me is to make me more attentive to news stories that are often ignored or overlooked, just because they happen to have occurred somewhere that most people aren't familiar. familiar with. I visited Tonga back in 2007, and I spent several days in the island of Tonga Tapu, which is the location of Tonga's capital city, Nuku'elofa. Just having been in Tonga has made me more attentive to the story, and my geology background was also part of what drew me in. So, with that being said, let's start with what the Hungatonga-Tonga-Humpai volcano is, because that name is quite a

mouthful. It's an underwater volcano, which is located only about 40 miles or 65 kilometers northwest of the Tongan capital of Nuku'u'llofa. And I have to confess, I was shocked at how close it was to the island of Tonga Tapu. The reason I was shocked is that the volcano really wasn't on anyone's radar before 2015. Prior to 2015, there were two islands, the island of Hungatonga Tonga and the island of Hungahapai. Both islands were the bits of the volcano's caldera which poked out above the surface of the water. In 2014 and 2015, there was an eruption that brought enough material to the surface to connect the two islands together.

The new single island became known as Hungatonga Hungahapai, which is just the name of the two original islands put together. If you want to see something really interesting, go to Google Earth and use their feature which allows you to look at past satellite images. All of a sudden, in 2015, the two islands are just one island. From here on out, I'm going to refer to the volcano as the Hungatonga volcano

just for brevity, but you should be aware of what the full name of it is. The volcano is caused by one tectonic plate subducting under another one. In particular, this zone is known as the Kermodeck Tonga subduction zone, and it extends from New Zealand way up past Tonga. It consists of the Pacific tectonic plate going underneath the Australian tectonic plate. This zone is one of the fastest moving subduction zones on Earth, and it moves an average of 24 centimeters a year, and that results in a lot of earthquakes and volcanoes. This area is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The volcano is approximately 1,800 meters tall when measured from the seafloor. Since the 2014-15 eruption, the volcano has been pretty passive.

However, what was happening during that time was a build-up of magma below the surface of the volcano. When the hot rocks from the subducting tectonic plate go into the mantle, much of the water is removed. When the hot rocks come back up in the volcano, remixing with water lowers its melting point and can manufacture gases which then become pressurized. The volcano began showing signs of activity in December of 2021, but it wasn't anything unusual. There was a big ash column that went up about 10 miles into the air and the area of the island expanded by about 50%. When the volcano erupted on January 15th, it was almost a perfect storm of event to create the biggest explosion possible. For starters, the main eruption took place about 500 feet below the surface of the ocean. When it blew, it was like opening up a can of soda that had been shaken up.

Because it was below the sea, when the hot magma hit the water, it turned it to steam, which made it significantly expand in volume, causing an even bigger explosion than if it had been above the surface. Volcanologists are still trying to figure out the size of the explosion, but the most conservative estimates I found put it at the equivalent of a 10-meaton nuclear bomb, and many are saying it may have been much larger. It might have been larger than the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba explosion, the largest nuclear blast ever detonated, which I talked about. in a previous episode. It's believed to be the largest eruption in terms of the amount of debris ejected since the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The entire Hungatonga Tanga eruption only took 10 minutes, but in that time, it managed to expel 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. The amount of ash thrown into the sky created an enormous electrical charge, which resulted in the largest lightning event ever recorded. At its peak,

meteorologists recorded 5,000 to 6,000 lightning strikes per minute, with over 200,000 recorded in a period of a single hour. The blast was so powerful that people claimed to have heard it in New Zealand. The pressure wave created in the atmosphere was powerful enough to have gone around the world twice, and there were researchers who were able to clearly measure it in Switzerland, which is pretty close to being on the opposite side of the globe. Of course, when you have a massive undersea thrust like this, you're going to have a massive undersea thrust like this, you're going to have a tsunami. If you remember back to my episode on tsunamis,

most of them are caused by a tectonic plate being thrust over another one. However, they can also be created by volcanic events like this, even if they do occur much less frequently. The tsunami didn't just hit Tonga, but it was felt all around the Pacific Rim. There was damage done in California. Two people were killed in Peru, and there's a really good

video of the tsunami hitting Port Vila in Vanuatu. The tsunami was different than most tsunamis. It seemed to have more energy further out than most tsunamis have. And the current theory is that the atmospheric pressure wave that came out of the volcano may have helped drive the water. This is known as a meteorological tsunami or a meteorosunami, and they usually only occur in storms. However, in this case, you had both an actual tsunami generated from below the surface and the added pressure from

the atmosphere from above the surface. One of the interesting things to come out of this eruption was its detection by the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty organization. This group was formed in 1996 to detect any nuclear tests that take place anywhere on Earth. They have a total of 53 detectors around the world that are listening for seismic activity. All 53 devices around the world recorded, and it was the largest single event recorded since the network went up in 1996. One of the possible implications of the eruption is that throwing so much sulfur dioxide and ash into the atmosphere could possibly result in a short-term cooling of the planet. This actually occurred after the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption when global temperatures dropped about half a degree Celsius or 0.9

degrees Fahrenheit for about two years. This eruption didn't release nearly as much into the atmosphere as Mount Pinatubo did, so the global effect will probably not be as large. One of the estimates I did read was that it could result in a significantly cooler winter in the southern hemisphere this year from June to August. So I think I've established that this was a pretty big eruption. What I haven't mentioned yet is the human impact on the people of Tonga. The fact is, there's still a lot we don't know. One of the things the eruption did was cut the only fiber optic connection to the country, which was its only real way to communicate with the outside world. The cable went from Tonga to Fiji. As far as we know, there was not a major loss of life in Tonga. I've only been able to find reports of

three people who died in the eruption. That being said, the humanitarian crisis might just be starting. For starters, most people in Tonga and in the Pacific in general, get their water by collecting rainwater. All of the ash, which fell on the islands, probably contaminated the cisterns that most houses have. Australia and New Zealand have sent reconnaissance flights over Tonga to try to assess the damage. It appears that many of the roads and bridges, especially near the coast,

have been damaged or destroyed. On January 20th, the first planes managed to land on Tonga Tapu. They couldn't land any sooner because the ash was supposed to be. still falling for two days, and the ash can wreck a jet engine by melting inside of it. Once the ash stopped falling, the call went out, and local Tongans came out to clear the runway by hand using brooms. Australian and New Zealand Navy ships are on the way, which, in addition to bringing food and medical supplies, will bring fresh water, and also the ability to create fresh water

out of seawater. Perhaps the most incredible story which has come out of Tonga so far is that of Lassala Fulal. He was swept out to sea by the tsunami, and managed to survive after 20, hours afloat in the sea by swimming to another island. Over the next several weeks, the full extent of the damage from the eruption will become known. Thankfully, we do know that the worst fears in Tonga appear not to have come to pass. We also know that the eruption of the Hungatonga volcano was one of the most significant volcanic events to have occurred on planet Earth in the last three decades.

Everything Everywhere Daily is an airwave media podcast. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so over at patreon.com. And remember, if you leave a review or send in a question, you two can have it read on the show.