The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

VIDEO. Tonga Islands: the devastating eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano seen from the ground

2022-01-17T12:13:05.356Z


These impressive images show black clouds of volcanic ash exploding amid tall columns of smoke during the eruption


The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano erupted again on Saturday January 15, triggering a tsunami on the coast of Tonga and cutting telephone and internet lines throughout the island.

Thick plumes of ash and smoke were propelled up to 20 km into the sky.

The inhabitants of the Tonga Islands fled to the heights on Saturday in the face of the tsunami caused by this new massive eruption heard up to hundreds of kilometers.

"A 1.20 m tsunami was observed in Nuku'alofa", the country's capital, announced the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The previous tsunami had not exceeded 30 cm. And the alert had just been lifted when the volcano erupted again. "It was a massive explosion," local resident Mere Taufa, who was at home preparing dinner, told the Stuff news site. “The ground shook, the whole house shook. It came in waves. My younger brother thought bombs were going off near our house,” she said. “We immediately knew it was a tsunami, with this water gushing into the house. You could hear screams all around, and everyone started fleeing to higher ground,” she added.

Read alsoVIDEO.

The impressive eruption of the volcano in the Tonga islands seen from space

King Tupou VI of Tonga was evacuated from the royal palace in Nuku'alofa and taken to a villa far from the coast.

The eruption lasted eight minutes, and was so loud it was heard "like a distant thunderous sound" over the Fiji Islands, more than 800km away.

Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance flights on Monday January 17 to assess the damage in Tonga, cut off from the rest of the world after the eruption blanketed the Pacific island in ash.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2022-01-17

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.