Tonga Hunga Tonga Hapai Volcano (pictured), a submarine volcano near Tonga, erupted on the 15th of this month. [사진 출처 = 연합뉴스]A scientist affiliated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on an American public radio that the power of an undersea volcanic eruption that occurred in Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific, was about 10 megatons (Mt). This is equivalent to the power of about 666 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
American public radio NPR reported an interview with James Gavin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, on the 18th (local time).
Gavin said that NASA had been studying the volcano for several years before the eruption, and estimated the power of the eruption on the 15th of this month. “We came up with an estimate of about 10 megatons,” Gavin said.
1 megaton is the power of detonating 1 million tons
Michael Poland, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS), assessed that the eruption was relatively small. For other volcanoes, eruptions last for several hours, as these eruptions last less than an hour.
However, if we assume that the volcano was completely above the water surface, it is much larger than expected, he said.
Poland said, “Had it been completely above the sea, it would have had a huge impact far beyond what could have been expected (damaged),” he said.
Meanwhile, on the 15th of this month, a submarine volcano near Tonga, Tonga Hunga Tonga Hapai Volcano, erupted. As a result, the surrounding islands were covered with volcanic ash, and the sound of the explosion spread to Alaska in the northern hemisphere as well as New Zealand, about 2,300 kilometers away.
At least three people have been reported to have died so far in the tsunami (tsunami) caused by the eruption.
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