Largest Explosive Eruption of the 21st Century: Hunga Tonga Broke Through Mesosphere 'Like a Shotgun Blast,' Expert Says

An expert claimed that the Hunga Tonga Volcano eruption in January was "like a shotgun blast" directed at the sky as it penetrated the mesosphere. According to analysis, it is the largest explosive eruption of the 21st century.

A team of scientists led by New Zealand said Monday that the deadly volcanic eruption next to Tonga in January this year was the largest ever observed using current technology.

Hunga Tonga Eruption

On the Pacific island nation of Tonga, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted beneath the ocean surface with a force comparable to hundreds of atomic bombs, causing a 15-meter tsunami that destroyed homes. Three were reported dead during the tsunami event.

The natural disaster also hampered efforts to aid the victims by damaging undersea communication cables that cut Tonga off from the rest of the planet for weeks.

The eruption blew out almost 10 cubic kilometers of material, which is equal to 2.6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. It sent debris over 40 km into the mesosphere, the layer above the Earth's stratosphere, according to a thorough study by National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA), New Zealand.

The Shotgun Blast that Broke Through the Mesosphere

Kevin Mackay, a marine geologist, said that being the first eruption ever to enter the mesosphere, the eruption reached record heights. He continued by comparing it to a shotgun blast fired straight up into the sky.

The Krakatoa disaster, which claimed tens of thousands of lives in Indonesia in 1883 before the development of modern measuring technology, is comparable to the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption.

Despite being among the biggest since Krakatoa, this eruption was significant, according to Mackay, but it was different from Krakatoa in that it took place at an underwater volcano, which also helped to generate the sizable tsunami waves.

Three-quarters of the debris released by the Tongan eruption have been accounted for by the team of scientists. The remaining portion is attributed to debris strewn throughout the atmosphere.

According to Mackay, the plume is believed to have contained nearly two cu. km. of particles, which lingered in the atmosphere for months and contributed to the breathtaking sunsets that were seen in the Pacific region as far as New Zealand, Phys Org reports.

Largest Explosive Eruption of 21st Century

Debris from the volcano was carried along the ocean floor at least 80 km away by the pyroclastic flows, which are deadly currents of lava, volcanic ash, and gases that can reach temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius and speeds of 700 kilometers per hour.

Emily Lane, the team's principal scientist, said that the pyroclastic flows seem to reach farther than that, perhaps up to 100 kilometers.

She added that, beyond the volcano, deposits indicated that there was sufficient power for the material to flow uphill over enormous ridges and then back down.

An event that had never been recorded in history was produced by the eruption. Tonga blew ejecta wells into what EarthSky called the "edge of space" of the upper atmosphere. It produced a cloud that engulfed a region roughly half the size of France.

Within a caldera that was already 500 feet below the surface of the ocean, the underwater volcano erupted. Its crater is now 750 meters deeper.

The January 15 eruption was measured by Piero Poli and Nikolai M. Shapiro, both researchers from the Institut des Sciences de la Terre. According to their analysis, the Hunga Tonga eruption was the largest explosive eruption of the 21st century, equal in power to the devastating Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines (1991), and it ejected a volume of about 10 km3,

The study by Poli and Shapiro was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.