Boom.
The ?????? ????? ??????profoundly powerful Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on Jan. 15 created a jarring appearance on Earth's surface and sent pressure waves around the globe. Now, NASA scientists say the volcano's plume of ash and gas reached a whopping 36 milesup in the atmosphere. That's likely the highest plume ever recorded in the satellite era.
The blast in the South Pacific came from an underwater volcano (Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai are just remnants of the volcanic peak.) As Mashable previously reported, volcanologists suspect that seawater interacting with the volcano's magma (molten rock) beneath the surface ultimately provided this eruption with the pressure for such a massive explosion.
"That's what gave this [eruption] outsized energy, we think," Josef Dufek, a volcanologist at the University of Oregon, told Mashable in January.
All this heat and superheated water "was like hyper-fuel for a mega-thunderstorm," NASA atmospheric scientist Kristopher Bedka told the space agency's Earth Observatory blog. "The intensity of this event far exceeds that of any storm cloud I have ever studied," Bedka added.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
NOAA satellite views show the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcanic eruption traveling high up into the atmosphere. On the top row, the second image from right shows the plume reaching the mesosphere, before the plume collapsed and spread out. Credit: NOAA / National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) The blast reached through the atmosphere's troposphere, which exists between the surface and some five to nine miles up in the atmosphere. This is where jetliners fly and our weather occurs. But then it blasted through the next level, the lofty stratosphere, too. That's some 22 miles thick.
Soon after the eruption, the plume reached the mesosphere. Meteors, popularly known as shooting stars, burn up in the mesosphere.
SEE ALSO: How climate change moved Earth's axisWhy Iceland's eruption is so gooey and thrilling
What Earth was like last time CO2 levels were this high
Why it's impossible to forecast the weather too far into the future
The great blast, topping off at 36 miles in elevation, was significantly higher than the historic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. That eruption reached 22 miles, and its sulfur dioxide gases (which soak up and scatter sunlight) had a cooling effect on the world.
The Tonga eruption likely won't cool the Earth. This eruption largely contained water vapor, not absorbent gases. But, as noted above, the eruption still had a global impact. The blast sent shock waves around Earth, multiple times.
State of California to Apologize for Treatment of JAs During WWII
Tokuda Sends Message of Aloha as House Speaker Standoff Continues
Japan to Require COVID
Celebrating the Life of Jim Matsuoka, a Man for All People
Skid Row Homeless Able to Keep Property as City Pays $645,000 in Settlement
Rep. Murphy Reflects on Time in Congress, Thanks Constituents
Aiming for 1,000 stores in U.S.: Downey Welcomes Daiso's Opening
COD players fear big change coming in Season 3 Reloaded that ‘killed’ Warzone before
DOR Program Draws Parallels Between 1942, 2020
Heavy Snow in Japan Leaves 17 Dead, Dozens Injured
LTCIF Approved to Raise Money as a Community
Prime Pizza Launches New Wagyu Sausage Pizza
Members of Congress Observe 2nd Anniversary of Insurrection
Ozoni for New Year's
Youth Groups Maintain Venice JA Memorial Monument
The Rafu Shimpo Reaches 34,000th Issue
Fred Korematsu Day Observance to Be Held Online
Nikkei Progressives' Tribute to Jim Matsuoka
Activists Then and Now
Rep. Takano Introduces Korean American VALOR Act
'Uncanny Valley,' CES, and the end of tech exceptionalismPlayStation 4 DualShock finally has costNext OnePlus flagship phone will have a 120Hz display17 Android Apps Caught Hiding and Displaying Aggressive Ads'Watchmen' will not be getting a second seasonAway CEO Steph Korey isn't stepping down after allFacebook hasn't paid that $5B FTC fine yet. What happens when it does?Report: Grindr, OkCupid send your private data to thirdThe Apple Archive is a massive trove of AppleBreaking Bad's Hank is joining Better Call Saul's final season First messages to send on Tinder if you want to be forever alone Mathematical study shows exactly how ride Trump's brilliant cybersecurity solution is to send messages by courier Groundbreaking Second Ave. subway station mural features a gay couple The 9 most cringeworthy brand fails of 2016 5 customer complaints that escalated hilariously in 2016 Giant Trump Animal shelter celebrates their empty kennels with a joyous video Your Apple Watch will guilt you into working out in the New Year These 10 classic bangers that all turn 10 in 2017
0.1382s , 10020.3203125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【?????? ????? ??????】Explosive NASA images show volcano's eruption reached incredible heights,Global Perspective Monitoring
