Report: Tonga volcanic eruption dwarfs previous nuclear test explosions

[kingofnerf]

"The explosive volcanic eruption in Tonga on Saturday appears to dwarf the largest nuclear detonations ever conducted, according to a global group that monitors for atomic testing.

The shock wave from the blast was so powerful that it was detected as far away as Antarctica, says Ronan Le Bras, a geophysicist with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, Austria, which oversees an international network of remote monitoring stations.

In total, 53 detectors around planet Earth heard the low-frequency boom from the explosion as it traveled through the atmosphere. It was the loudest event the network had detected in more than 20 years of operation, according to Le Bras.

'Every single station picked it up,' he says. 'It's the biggest thing that we've ever seen.'"

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074438703/nuclear-test-monitor-calls-tonga-volcano-blast-biggest-thing-that-weve-ever-seen

 

[JimG]

 

[kingofnerf]

"The volcanic eruption in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga peaked on Jan. 15 with more explosive force than 100 simultaneous Hiroshima bombs, NASA scientists reported on Monday (Jan 24).

Using a combination of satellite and surface-based surveys, researchers calculated the explosive power of the volcano based on the amount of rock that was removed during the blast from the island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai where it sits, the apparent height of the eruption cloud and several other factors.

"This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT," Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told NASA's Earth Observatory blog. (One megaton is equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT)."

https://www.livescience.com/tonga-volcano-hiroshima-bomb