NASA Experts: Tonga Volcano Explosion Hundreds of Times More Powerful than Hiroshima Atom Bomb

Created: 01/25/2022, 12:30 p.m

By: Patrick Huljina

The volcanic eruption off Tonga was massive.

According to NASA, the mechanical energy released was several times higher than that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Nuku'alofa - On January 15, the submarine volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai erupted off Tonga.

According to experts, it was one of the world's most severe eruptions in decades.

The deafening bang could be heard thousands of miles away.

A gigantic cloud of ash and gas was hurled kilometers into the air like a mushroom cloud.

According to the Tonga government, the volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami up to 15 meters high.

This caused destruction on the South Sea Islands.

The tsunami waves even reached regions as far away as Alaska, Japan and South America.

According to New Zealand researcher Emily Lane, it was the first volcanic-triggered Pacific-wide tsunami since Indonesia's devastating 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which killed an estimated 36,000 people.

That alone shows the energy released when the undersea volcano erupted.

Tonga volcano erupts hundreds of times more powerful than Hiroshima atomic bomb

Researchers at the US space agency NASA have now explained that the volcanic eruption off Tonga was several hundred times stronger than the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

"This is a preliminary estimate, but we believe the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to about 4 to 18 megatons of TNT," said NASA scientist Jim Garvin.

The explosion released hundreds of times more mechanical energy than the nuclear explosion that largely destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

The Little Boy atomic bomb dropped at that time had an explosive force of around 13 kilotons of TNT.

After the eruption off Tonga, satellite images show that an island that was only created in 2015 during a months-long eruption of the volcano has completely disappeared.

According to NASA, she was literally "wiped out" by the current eruption.

Only two small, separate land masses are left.

Researchers also discovered mysterious waves in the atmosphere as a result of the volcanic eruption.

The volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami devastated Tonga.

© Xinhua/IMAGO

Tonga: Volcanic eruption causes great destruction

Tonga's government has so far confirmed three dead and several injured.

It is estimated that 84 percent of the approximately 105,000 residents on all of Tonga's islands were affected by the ash rain and the tsunami.

The broadcaster

reported on Tuesday (January 25) that there was concern that many people in the South Seas state had suffered psychological trauma from what they had experienced.

A reporter at the scene said scores of people were still visibly shocked: "Some people are just staring straight ahead."

Especially near the coast, the destruction is enormous.

The tsunami leveled numerous houses, uprooted trees and devastated entire regions.

The normally colorful South Seas islands are covered in a layer of ash.

Observers spoke of a "lunar landscape" after the volcanic eruption.

Communication with the islands initially collapsed as a result of the eruption and, according to the government, is still "an acute challenge" and only partially possible.