After erupting in December, on January 15 the tongan volcano experienced a explosion whose consequences were felt throughout the world. One of the many generated tsunamis left 2 victims 10,000 kilometers away, in Peru. The sound of the detonation was felt in Canada and in some parts of Spain the resulting atmospheric disturbances in the form of meteotsunami were detected. A curious pattern of concentric waves was even found in the stratosphere, 50 kilometers above sea level. And it is not for less, because the explosion was as powerful as 700 times that of the Hiroshima bomb.
It is one of the figures that are coming to us as scientists analyze the data measured there and in the rest of the world. An eruption powerful enough to cause such an explosion occurs once every 1,000 years and the truth is that it was already playing.
But, even so, it has startled the entire planet, which now thinks that 2022 begins by honoring the two years we left behind. The truth is that there are catastrophes every year, but since 2020 we look at them more closely. Now, leaving that bias aside. What else do we know at the moment? big explosion of the Tonga volcano?
Tonga volcano ripples into the atmosphere
The aqua satellite, launched by NASA into space in 2002, is responsible for measuring the water cycle on Earth through numerous instruments. One of them is the AIRS, an atmospheric infrared probe that captures all the infrared energy emitted daily from the earth’s surface. Thus, according to explain on the space agency’s page, it can “provide 3D measurements of temperature and water vapor throughout the atmospheric column, along with a host of trace gases, surface and cloud properties.” These data are used to make weather forecasts as well as to assess the validity of climate models. But it is also used to detect volcanic plumes or predict droughts.
Logically, the scientists were very interested in analyzing the data he took after the tonga volcano explosion. And no doubt they were surprised, because they found a pattern of concentric waves very different from any other detected in other volcanic eruptions during the 20 years that the satellite has been in use. He explained it in an article in Nature atmospheric scientist Lars Hoffman. “It’s really unique. We’ve never seen anything like this in the data before.”
Each concentric circle represents a fast-moving wave in the gases of the atmosphere, extending over more than 16,000 kilometers. Hence, the disturbance was felt by practically everyone.
These waves are known to occur when air molecules in the atmosphere are disturbed vertically, rather than horizontally, in a column of air. This can occur when the wind picks up speed as it rises over the top of a mountain. Or as a result of convection in local weather systems. And in theory it can also happen as a consequence of column of hot air and ashes that comes out abruptly after the eruption of a volcano. But, despite the theories, nothing like this had been seen until now.
And it is not for less, with an explosion that dwarfs the brutality of the Hiroshima bomb.
Hiroshima bomb 700 times
james garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explained in remarks to npr that the explosion of the Tonga volcano released an equivalent of 10 megatons of TNT.
The megaton of TNT is a unit used to measure the power of an explosion, comparing it to the energy that would be released by exploding. 1 million tons of the explosive TNT.
In the case of the Hiroshima bomb, it was not powerful enough to be measured in megatons. He had a power of 13 kilotons. Therefore, if the explosion of the Tonga volcano was 10 megatons or, what is the same, 10,000 kilotons, we would be talking about more than 700 times the Hiroshima bomb.
Knowing this, it is not surprising that the blast wave caused tsunamis around the world. Nor that strange wave patterns were generated in the stratosphere and, perhaps, even felt in space. And it is that, as explained in an article for The Conversation space science researcher Gareth Dorrian, it could be that the disturbance generated waves beyond the Karman’s line, the imaginary border located 100 kilometers high from which we can officially speak of space.
These illusions occur once every thousand years; but, since they wait so long, when they arrive they go with everything.