Featured photo by: Japan Meteorological Agency. CC BY 4.0. Source.
Sources for this post at the bottom.
As I want to add more posts on here that involve the Commonwealth, I thought this would be something to look into as Tonga is a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is a small island nation found in the Pacific; I am not going to go into its history as I shall do that when its government system post comes around. But it was once a part of the British Empire.
So, with that established I would say it fits the criteria for a blogpost. I mean, even if it was not a member of the organisation I would have still considered this for a blogpost anyway as this volcanic eruption will certainly be in the history books, it is perhaps the largest and most violent eruption to have taken place since at least the 1800s. The eruption was powerful enough to obliterate a large portion of an island – don’t worry the island was not inhabited by humans.
But Tonga was the closest nation to the eruption and therefore felt the most direct consequences of its eruption. The explosion of the eruption was so loud that it was heard as far away as New Zealand and Fiji and emitted a shockwave picked up by satellites that circled the world several times. The eruption/explosion itself caught on satellites is definitely something extraordinary to see.
The volcano, which was an underwater one, also was violent and strong enough to cause a big tsunami that not only had consequences for Pacific islands such as Tonga but also affected other countries such as the US, Japan New Zealand and Australia as well as the western coasts of North and South America, where it caused flooding along the coasts. It really goes to show you how powerful this eruption was to send big waves that have affected countries hundreds of miles away.
But volcanoes are powerful things and really on the grand scale of things this eruption was still small compared to that which a supervolcanic eruption can release. I am sure many of you have heard the dooming and glooming over the Yellowstone caldera,
It is a big volcano with supervolcanic potential that when it goes off, which at some point it will, would absolutely devastate the United States and would have massive consequences for the world. But even then, there is little reason for us to doom and worry about it as it is extremely unlikely it will be going off in any of our lifetimes – ignore the sensationalist articles that act like it is going to blow any moment. If anything is going to blow, it will probably just be your car backfiring.
The Year without a Summer
Anyway. Volcanoes are also powerful enough to cause temporary changes to the climate, which can cause more extreme or rather unusual weather for the time of year. Volcano blasts in the 1800s for example are thought to have culminated in the year without a summer, especially that of the Mount Tambora eruption within the then Dutch East Indies (Indonesia today), one of the most recent largest eruptions and currently still the largest recorded eruption (although there has 100% been previous larger eruptions, just before we had the ability to record them). And despite the huge effects this eruption had, it still was not large enough to be a supervolcanic eruption, so you can only imagine.
There has not been a single supervolcanic eruption in recorded history, so when one does happen, it will be the first ever time it is recorded and something the modern world has never experienced so far. We have known of several supervolcanic eruptions that have took place in prehistoric times, but only due to geographic evidence.
Speaking of Indonesia, it is actually the country with some of the largest and most destructive and active volcanoes in the world, including a number of volcanoes with supervolcanic potential that again would have consequences for the entire world if one of them went off.
It is again unlikely we shall see any supervolcanic eruption in our lifetimes, so it is not something to be glooming and worrying about.
Interestingly volcanoes are also creators as well, not just destroyers. Underwater volcanoes such as that which went off near Tonga will often lead to the creation of a new island, one that may one day become habitable, although you would want to make sure the volcano has become fully inactive first for obvious reason. This island creation has actually also been caught on camera as well, and it is fascinating to witness.
But back to the Summer without a Winter, this was in 1816, and it caused temperatures in Europe and North America to plummet to unusual levels for what should have been warm and dry summers. It became colder and sunshine was scarce. And this had consequences on the crops being grown, such leading to crop failures, that itself would lead to food shortages and as such suffering for a time.
Naturally the eruption itself had an immediate devastating effect on what is today Indonesia, many lives were lost directly due to the eruption, and all of the ash pumped high up into the air was enough to blot out the sun and cause a gloomy darkness to descend over the lands. Eventually much of the ash came down and covered villages and towns in the area, some being covered with so much that the literal weight caused structures such as homes to collapse. It was also reported that the ocean in the area was covered with a thick blanket of ash that ships had to plough through. It sounds like a hellish scenario.
Smaller particles spewed by the volcano went on to have effects on the wider world over the months following the eruption and temporarily altered the climate. The average global temperature dropped by three degrees C – which to some may not sound like a lot, but this is deceiving as even a single degree in difference of the global average temperature can have significant affects and consequences for the world – one of the reasons why climate change is such an urgency.
So yes, this led to crop failures in Europe and North America due to the lack of sunshine as well as the frost caused by lower temperatures, with summer crops not being hardier enough to deal with it. The scarcity of food had farmers who grew hardier crops that could deal with the harsher climate worried they may get robbed as people became desperate for food, this was even more so as the price of food climbed due to the scarcity, having a direct impact on the poorest.
This also had an effect on transportation as well. Back obviously during these times horses were the main method of transportation, and they too as living creatures needed to be kept fed, the scarcity of food meant that oats they were fed on also became more expensive, which had a knock-on effect on the price of transportation itself. Some theorize that this may even have been one of the inspirations for the invention of the bicycle, so that it would be cheaper to travel.
So, this shows that not only are there direct affects, there are many cumulative knock-on effects. So, if you think a massive volcano eruption across the other side of the world could not possibly affect you – think again. Of course, there are a lot of differences now a days, so we will not know exactly how such an eruption would affect the modern world (for example, cars, trains, buses, and planes are now the main method of transportation), but I think we can all agree it would not be good nonetheless.
One possible issue could be that the ash throughout the atmosphere could affect flights, actually we’ve already seen how normal volcanic eruptions have affected flights, such as volcanoes in Iceland having caused chaos for European flights. So, just imagine how a much larger eruption like that of Tambora or worse would affect flights worldwide today.
What did the Hunga Tonga Volcano Cause?
Well, right off the bat it caused a lot of awe, fascination and terror. Then it caused a lot of worry when Tonga basically went into radio silence for a time, with many awaiting news of how badly the island was affected by the after-effects of the volcanic eruption, such as ash and the tsunami.
The volcano itself is called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai and it a submarine volcano (AKA volcano under the water). It is only 19 miles away from another submarine volcano, Fonuafo’ou, and 40 miles away from Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu. The volcano is part of the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone, and the volcanic arc (chain of volcanoes along the subducting plate) stretches from New Zealand to Fiji. This exists due to the Pacific Plate pushing under (or subducting) the Indo-Australian plate (tectonic plates). The area is very seismically active, due to the tectonic plates.
Don’t know about anyone else but that was a nice refresher on my geography and science classes from my school days.
Anyway, our perpetrator, Hunga Tonga, rises roughly 2,000 meters from the seafloor. There was an uninhabited island above the volcano. Before 2015 these islands were separate but were merged into a single landmass due to a volcanic eruption there, this eruption not being as large as the 2022 one. Now the island is just a twin pair again following the 2022 eruption, with the size of the islands also having been reduced. This is why you would not want to have moved to this island without making sure the volcano was fully inactive, and even then, it is probably not a good idea as it could become active again. The plume generated by the massive eruption reached half-way to space.
A BBC News article says that at least 84% of the population of Tonga (the population being around 105,000) were affected by the ash and tsunami. The waves caused damage to the coasts, destroyed buildings, and also villages as well. At least three people, including a British national, are known to have been killed, and one hopes it will not rise further, but it is hard to remain hopeful on this considering the devastation caused. As it stands there are also under two dozen known injuries.
Initially there were worries that the volcanic ash may have contaminated drinking water, but since then testing has cleared ground and rainwater as safe to drink. But emissions and ash from the volcano are a continuing hazard to public health, with the possibility of exposure causing breathing difficulties, cardiovascular issues, as well as lung, skin, and eye irritation. 62 people have had to be relocated from the outer island of Mango to Nomuka due to it being one of Tonga’s worst-hit islands, but people may need to be moved again from Nomuka due to shortage of supplies including food, Nomuka’s only clinic was also destroyed by the tsunami and so a field hospital had to be setup.
Tonga’s only airport had to have it runway be cleared of ash before any foreign aid could arrive there, the main seaport was also quite badly affected. Ships have also been bringing in aid. New Zealand and Australia have led the aid response to Tonga, using naval and carriers and air force to make contactless drops of supplies. This aid has also included supplies to help repair telecommunications, which were badly damaged by the devastation. The volcanic explosions also severed Tonga’s only fibre-optic undersea cable, cutting them off from the internet and leaving them unable to communicate internationally until a telephone line was repaired which allowed limited communication. Communication between the main island and the outer islands remains a challenge. The fibre-optic cable may take up to 4-weeks to repair.
COVID itself still remains an issue as well, and as such is why aid has been contactless for now, and as the island is effectively COVID-free they do not want to risk an outbreak. But it is possible they may end up having little choice but to allow aid workers in due to the extent of the damage.
As well as the tsunami it also caused an atmospheric pressure change that were detected in many places across the world.
The eruption had been expected as the last major eruption there took place in 1100 AD, a very long time ago! Before the 1100 eruption another major one had taken place 1,800 years beforehand. Scientists knew from this that the repeat cycle was 900-years on average, which matches up with the latest major eruption.
Sources
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