The eruption of the underwater volcano in the South Pacific region on Saturday was so loud that many Tongans could not hear and had to give signalling to one another during the evacuation exercise, an eyewitness has reported.
“The first explosion … our ears were ringing and we couldn’t even hear each other, so all we do is pointing to our families to get up, get ready to run,” said journalist Marian Kupu told Reuters news agency.
Ten megatons of TNT is 500 times stronger than Hiroshima’s atomic bomb at the end of WWII, if that doesn’t sound like much.
The seismic explosion had been sighted from the South Pacific, where Tonga is located, to Alaska, and was probably the loudest event on Earth in almost 140 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Michael Poland, according to NPR.
I can't fathom seeing the #tonga Volcanic eruption in real-time from boat. This is insane.pic.twitter.com/1dXRa0lX25
— Mike Ventrice (@MJVentrice) January 15, 2022
#NASAWorldview Image of the Week: Explosive Eruption of #HungaTonga – Hunga Ha'apai Volcano as observed on Jan. 15, 2022 by the ABI instrument aboard the @NOAA GOES-West satellite. Learn more: https://t.co/1qBhuelg3J GeoColor Imagery provided by NOAA/NESDIS/STAR pic.twitter.com/yRkR0bfg9U
— NASAEarthdata (@NASAEarthData) January 18, 2022
The destruction from Tonga's massive underwater volcanic eruption is still being assessed but scientists now warn that the damage could be long-lasting https://t.co/rgCHGyQBFM pic.twitter.com/AWWEC3heW5
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 18, 2022
First aid finally reached Tonga five days after a volcanic eruption and tsunami hit the South Pacific island nation. Phone lines were partially restored, but restoring full internet services could take a month or more https://t.co/g3TQjuv1nj pic.twitter.com/3gDojdBQCg
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 20, 2022
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