The eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga is scary. Researchers at NASA also estimate that the power of the eruption was far more than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
"We got the equivalent of 10 megatons of TNT," said James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
That is, the force of the Tonga volcano eruption is 500 times more powerful than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. So powerful that the eruption was heard even as far away as Alaska.
According to Michael Poland, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, this eruption was probably one of the loudest events on Earth in the last century.
"It is possible that this event was the most violent eruption since the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia in 1883," said Poland.
Garvin believes the worst part of this eruption for Tonga may be over, at least for now. "If this is what happened in previous volcanic eruptions of this kind, then we will no longer see such eruptions for a while," he said.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano is known to have erupted several times in recent years. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic material reportedly penetrated sea level during an eruption in 2009.
Its latest eruption, which occurred Saturday (15/1), not only caused a tsunami wave in Tonga, but also affected the entire Pacific. Tsunami warnings were issued in several areas of New Zealand, Japan, and the United States.
The highest wave observed was 120 cm at Amami Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, followed by a 110 cm wave at Kuku Harbor in Iwate Prefecture.