Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted in January 2022. This underwater volcanic eruption even caused a tsunami and storms in the Earth's atmosphere. Research reveals that the magnitude of the Hunga Tonga eruption is the same as the eruption of Mount Krakatau in 1883.
The last volcano to produce large ripples in the atmosphere was Krakatoa in 1883. Krakatoa itself is known as one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in history. The Hunga Tonga eruption had an energy comparable to a 4 to 18 megaton TNT explosion, or more than 100 Hiroshima-scale bombs exploding at once.
"This atmospheric wave event is unprecedented in the modern geophysical record," said first author Robin Matoza, a professor in the Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Research published recently in the journal Science, reveals that the pressure pulses generated by the Tonga volcano are comparable in amplitude to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and an order of magnitude larger than the eruption of Mount St. Helen's eruption. The higher the amplitude of a wave, the stronger the wave.
A second study also published in Science showed that this powerful pulse not only shook the atmosphere, but also sent ripples in the oceans.
In fact, atmospheric waves produce small, fast-moving meteotsunami (hurricane-induced tsunamis). That means, the meteotsunami could reach the coast hours before a conventional seismic-driven tsunami caused by a volcanic explosion.
How high is this 'predecessor' tsunami, it can be several cm or more than a conventional tsunami. However, this depends on the location, said Kubota. Thus launched Science Alert