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Post author By Charlie January 27, 2022
A Deep Dive into the Tonga Volcano Eruption
theweeklyrambler.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-tonga-volcano-eruption/
Featured photo by: Japan Meteorological Agency. CC BY 4.0. Source.
Sources for this post at the bottom.
As I want to add more posts on here that involve the Commonwealth, I thought this would
be something to look into as Tonga is a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is a small
island nation found in the Pacific; I am not going to go into its history as I shall do that
when its government system post comes around. But it was once a part of the British
Empire.

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So, with that established I would say it fits the criteria for a blogpost. I mean, even if it was
not a member of the organisation I would have still considered this for a blogpost anyway
as this volcanic eruption will certainly be in the history books, it is perhaps the largest and
most violent eruption to have taken place since at least the 1800s. The eruption was
powerful enough to obliterate a large portion of an island – don’t worry the island was not
inhabited by humans.
But Tonga was the closest nation to the eruption and therefore felt the most direct
consequences of its eruption. The explosion of the eruption was so loud that it was heard
as far away as New Zealand and Fiji and emitted a shockwave picked up by satellites that
circled the world several times. The eruption/explosion itself caught on satellites is
definitely something extraordinary to see.
The volcano, which was an underwater one, also was violent and strong enough to cause
a big tsunami that not only had consequences for Pacific islands such as Tonga but also
affected other countries such as the US, Japan New Zealand and Australia as well as the
western coasts of North and South America, where it caused flooding along the coasts. It
really goes to show you how powerful this eruption was to send big waves that have
affected countries hundreds of miles away.
But volcanoes are powerful things and really on the grand scale of things this eruption
was still small compared to that which a supervolcanic eruption can release. I am sure
many of you have heard the dooming and glooming over the Yellowstone caldera,
It is a big volcano with supervolcanic potential that when it goes off, which at some point it
will, would absolutely devastate the United States and would have massive
consequences for the world. But even then, there is little reason for us to doom and worry
about it as it is extremely unlikely it will be going off in any of our lifetimes – ignore the
sensationalist articles that act like it is going to blow any moment. If anything is going to
blow, it will probably just be your car backfiring.
The Year without a Summer

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Mount Tambora. Image in the Public Domain.
Anyway. Volcanoes are also powerful enough to cause temporary changes to the climate,
which can cause more extreme or rather unusual weather for the time of year. Volcano
blasts in the 1800s for example are thought to have culminated in the year without a
summer, especially that of the Mount Tambora eruption within the then Dutch East Indies
(Indonesia today), one of the most recent largest eruptions and currently still the largest
recorded eruption (although there has 100% been previous larger eruptions, just before
we had the ability to record them). And despite the huge effects this eruption had, it still
was not large enough to be a supervolcanic eruption, so you can only imagine.
There has not been a single supervolcanic eruption in recorded history, so when one
does happen, it will be the first ever time it is recorded and something the modern world
has never experienced so far. We have known of several supervolcanic eruptions that
have took place in prehistoric times, but only due to geographic evidence.
Speaking of Indonesia, it is actually the country with some of the largest and most
destructive and active volcanoes in the world, including a number of volcanoes
with supervolcanic potential that again would have consequences for the entire world if
one of them went off.
It is again unlikely we shall see any supervolcanic eruption in our lifetimes, so it is not
something to be glooming and worrying about.
Interestingly volcanoes are also creators as well, not just destroyers. Underwater
volcanoes such as that which went off near Tonga will often lead to the creation of a new
island, one that may one day become habitable, although you would want to make sure
the volcano has become fully inactive first for obvious reason. This island creation has
actually also been caught on camera as well, and it is fascinating to witness.

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But back to the Summer without a Winter, this was in 1816, and it caused temperatures in
Europe and North America to plummet to unusual levels for what should have been warm
and dry summers. It became colder and sunshine was scarce. And this had
consequences on the crops being grown, such leading to crop failures, that itself would
lead to food shortages and as such suffering for a time.
Naturally the eruption itself had an immediate devastating effect on what is today
Indonesia, many lives were lost directly due to the eruption, and all of the ash pumped
high up into the air was enough to blot out the sun and cause a gloomy darkness to
descend over the lands. Eventually much of the ash came down and covered villages and
towns in the area, some being covered with so much that the literal weight caused
structures such as homes to collapse. It was also reported that the ocean in the area was
covered with a thick blanket of ash that ships had to plough through. It sounds like a
hellish scenario.
Smaller particles spewed by the volcano went on to have effects on the wider world over
the months following the eruption and temporarily altered the climate. The average global
temperature dropped by three degrees C – which to some may not sound like a lot, but
this is deceiving as even a single degree in difference of the global average temperature
can have significant affects and consequences for the world – one of the reasons why
climate change is such an urgency.
So yes, this led to crop failures in Europe and North America due to the lack of sunshine
as well as the frost caused by lower temperatures, with summer crops not being hardier
enough to deal with it. The scarcity of food had farmers who grew hardier crops that could
deal with the harsher climate worried they may get robbed as people became desperate
for food, this was even more so as the price of food climbed due to the scarcity, having a
direct impact on the poorest.
This also had an effect on transportation as well. Back obviously during these times
horses were the main method of transportation, and they too as living creatures needed
to be kept fed, the scarcity of food meant that oats they were fed on also became more
expensive, which had a knock-on effect on the price of transportation itself.
Some theorize that this may even have been one of the inspirations for the invention of
the bicycle, so that it would be cheaper to travel.
So, this shows that not only are there direct affects, there are many cumulative knock-on
effects. So, if you think a massive volcano eruption across the other side of the world
could not possibly affect you – think again. Of course, there are a lot of differences now a
days, so we will not know exactly how such an eruption would affect the modern world
(for example, cars, trains, buses, and planes are now the main method of transportation),
but I think we can all agree it would not be good nonetheless.
One possible issue could be that the ash throughout the atmosphere could affect flights,
actually we’ve already seen how normal volcanic eruptions have affected flights, such as
volcanoes in Iceland having caused chaos for European flights. So, just imagine how a
much larger eruption like that of Tambora or worse would affect flights worldwide today.

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Image in the Public Domain.
What did the Hunga Tonga Volcano Cause?
Well, right off the bat it caused a lot of
awe, fascination and terror. Then it
caused a lot of worry when Tonga
basically went into radio silence for a
time, with many awaiting news of how
badly the island was affected by the
after-effects of the volcanic eruption,
such as ash and the tsunami.
The volcano itself is called Hunga
Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai and it a submarine
volcano (AKA volcano under the water).
It is only 19 miles away from another
submarine volcano, Fonuafo’ou, and 40
miles away from Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu. The volcano is part of the Kermadec-
Tonga subduction zone, and the volcanic arc (chain of volcanoes along the subducting
plate) stretches from New Zealand to Fiji. This exists due to the Pacific Plate pushing
under (or subducting) the Indo-Australian plate (tectonic plates). The area is very
seismically active, due to the tectonic plates.
Don’t know about anyone else but that was a nice refresher on my geography and
science classes from my school days.
Anyway, our perpetrator, Hunga Tonga, rises roughly 2,000 meters from the seafloor.
There was an uninhabited island above the volcano. Before 2015 these islands were
separate but were merged into a single landmass due to a volcanic eruption there, this
eruption not being as large as the 2022 one. Now the island is just a twin pair again
following the 2022 eruption, with the size of the islands also having been reduced. This is
why you would not want to have moved to this island without making sure the volcano
was fully inactive, and even then, it is probably not a good idea as it could become active
again. The plume generated by the massive eruption reached half-way to space.
A BBC News article says that at least 84% of the population of Tonga (the population
being around 105,000) were affected by the ash and tsunami. The waves caused damage
to the coasts, destroyed buildings, and also villages as well. At least three people,
including a British national, are known to have been killed, and one hopes it will not rise
further, but it is hard to remain hopeful on this considering the devastation caused. As it
stands there are also under two dozen known injuries.
Initially there were worries that the volcanic ash may have contaminated drinking water,
but since then testing has cleared ground and rainwater as safe to drink. But emissions
and ash from the volcano are a continuing hazard to public health, with the possibility of
exposure causing breathing difficulties, cardiovascular issues, as well as lung, skin, and
eye irritation. 62 people have had to be relocated from the outer island of Mango

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to Nomuka due to it being one of Tonga’s worst-hit islands, but people may need to be
moved again from Nomuka due to shortage of supplies including food, Nomuka’s only
clinic was also destroyed by the tsunami and so a field hospital had to be setup.
Tonga’s only airport had to have it runway be cleared of ash before any foreign aid could
arrive there, the main seaport was also quite badly affected. Ships have also been
bringing in aid. New Zealand and Australia have led the aid response to Tonga, using
naval and carriers and air force to make contactless drops of supplies. This aid has also
included supplies to help repair telecommunications, which were badly damaged by the
devastation. The volcanic explosions also severed Tonga’s only fibre-optic undersea
cable, cutting them off from the internet and leaving them unable to communicate
internationally until a telephone line was repaired which allowed limited communication.
Communication between the main island and the outer islands remains a challenge.
The fibre-optic cable may take up to 4-weeks to repair.
COVID itself still remains an issue as well, and as such is why aid has been contactless
for now, and as the island is effectively COVID-free they do not want to risk an
outbreak. But it is possible they may end up having little choice but to allow aid workers in
due to the extent of the damage.
As well as the tsunami it also caused an atmospheric pressure change that were detected
in many places across the world.
The eruption had been expected as the last major eruption there took place in 1100 AD, a
very long time ago! Before the 1100 eruption another major one had taken place 1,800
years beforehand. Scientists knew from this that the repeat cycle was 900-years on
average, which matches up with the latest major eruption.
Sources
(1) (2) (3) (4)
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