Predicting Disaster? Sea Turtle Swam For 47 Days After Sensing Devastating Volcanic Outburst

A marine turtle that had been rehabilitated following approximately three years of recuperation was fortunate enough to survive another life-threatening situation

Sea Turtle Predicts Volcanic Eruption

According to the news media site Mirror, the sea turtle which had traveled hundreds of miles approaching Tonga, abruptly altered direction the day prior a volcano explosion wreaked havoc on the peninsula country.

Tilly, a female emerald gopher tortoise and now three years old, was freed and branded with a unique transmitter in November at Flynn Reef, off the coastline of Cairns, while heading east over the Outlying islands. The young turtle traveled 1,867 kilometers in 47 days, according to a Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef monitoring satellite.

However, Tilly, abruptly changed her mind on January 14, only 24 hours earlier Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai's massive undersea explosion hurled ash 60,000 feet into the atmosphere.

According to Business Insider, the eruption was so powerful that it produced storm surges that devastated the archipelago. It commenced heading straight along the Queensland coastline moments prior to the explosion on a dormant volcano north of Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

Tilly and her brother Sammy were unleashed with little transmitters affixed to their carapace in November so experts could monitor their development. According to Jennie Gilbert of the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, where Tilly initially began three years recovering after being entangled in a trap with scant prospect of life, the tortoise definitely sensed there was something wrong.

As none have previously conducted any study on tortoises and its possible ability on geophysical recognition, expert Jennifer Gilbert expressed his deep interest and plans on producing an experimental article on the event in an interview with ABC News.

"I do not really believe tortoises could be used as a forecasting mechanism," says Gilbert.

As for the other experts and researchers they claim that one could not say and direct a turtle's movements or forecast what they'll do since these tortoises possess their personal thoughts. Tilly again reprised her feat, changing her course as she traveled across the Great Barrier Reef just as a mild tremor struck north Queensland.

Sea Turtles Detecting Geophysical Activity

While there has been existing study on the capacities of whales, dolphins, and penguins to identify possible ground movements there have been no recorded documentation or study with tortoises, according to Jennifer.

As Tilly had spent her first few years at the center after participants verifying a marine mammal habitat discovered her as a larval stage on the verge of dying after performing poorly to break free from where their embryos had been entombed. Sammy's monitor was taken down after only 10 days. Tilly, on the other hand, has swum almost 2,000 kilometers in 78 days.

Following the explosion, aerial photographs revealed a three-mile-wide cloud of debris, vapor, and gasses ascending nearly 12 miles into the atmosphere. The undersea bomb triggered a tidal wave, killing at least three individuals and damaging properties from across nation. It could be audible for long distances and prompted advisories in New Zealand, Fiji, American Samoa, as well as Australia.

After the disastrous event that occurred, Tonga has been suffering from the effects of an underwater catastrophic event on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, approximately 65 kilometers north of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, something that generated a storm surge with up to 15-metre-high surges.

Furthermore, the explosion and storm surges murdered three individuals, wrecked communities and resort towns, and cut off connections to the peninsula's 105,000 residents.