The explosion of Tonga's volcano exceeded our initial estimates of its size and power.

In January 2022, the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, located in Tonga, erupted, causing a series of extraordinary events that captured the world's attention. The eruption, which was heard as far away as Alaska, sent a plume of searing hot gas and ash 35.4 miles into the sky, a record high.

The eruption was not just a local event. The blast jettisoned an unprecedented 146 teragrams of vaporized water into the atmosphere, causing sea levels to rise by a foot in the Mediterranean Sea on the opposite side of the world. This phenomenon, known as a meteo-tsunami, spread to oceans around the globe.

The eruption also had a devastating impact on the surrounding area. A survey discovered a large area around the volcano devoid of life, blanketed in a ghostly white layer of fine sediments. Three quarters of the excavated and erupted rock appears to have landed within 12 miles of the volcano. The pyroclastic flows likely severed both domestic and international communication lines for Tonga.

Modeling conducted by NIWA's Emily Lane suggests that volcanic material poured into a valley that housed one of the cables. The volcanic slopes remain intact, with all eruptive energy seemingly directed straight up to the sky. The eruption is believed to have excavated about 2.3 cubic miles of rock.

The latest research confirms that the volcano's blast excavated down 2,300 feet of rock in the central crater. Richard Wysoczanski, a marine geologist with NIWA, states that there's a huge hole in the ground where it wasn't before.

The Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP), a collaboration between NIWA and The Nippon Foundation, was conducted as a part of the efforts to understand the aftermath of the eruption. The project involved two survey legs, the first in April and the second in August.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island group was studied in detail by a research team from New Zealand and Japan in 2022 because the islands had changed significantly since their last emergence about 18 years prior. Much of the remaining material likely circulated in the atmosphere as dust for months, intensifying the colors of sunrises and sunsets.

If confirmed, the eruption would be the largest recorded in the last century, surpassing the 1991 blast at Mount Pinatubo. The eruption sparked a tsunami that traveled around the world, reminding us of the immense power hidden beneath our feet.