Geologist explains the Jan 15, 2022 submarine eruption and tsunami in Tonga
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ม.ค. 2022
- Geology Professor Shawn Willsey provides some insights and information on the underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga and the tsunami it produced on Jan 15, 2022. The eruption was seen from space and prompted tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific region including the US west coast.
- วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I really appreciate this information & the way you present it! This is the most factual info about this eruption I've been able to find on yt 😊
You bet. Happy to help.
Very informative like all your other videos. I’m very glad I found you a couple months ago, while searching for videos on Titus Canyon.
I found your channel during the current Iceland activity (2023). I had to go back through your catalog to check out your thought on this eruption. Thanks for what you do.
Thank you for the deeper overview. This is the first I found with the large Caldera information.
No problem. Happy to share good info.
Wow you had me at the beginning I'm a visual learner and images with supporting details from you helped me understand even more... Awesome teaching Thank you Shawn!!
You bet. Thanks for the kind words and glad this worked for you.
Very helpful and interesting presentation; thank you!
Thank you, for the informative content, its the only geological perspective I have seen on this event.
My thoughts go out to the people of Tonga on the areas impacted....kia kaha.
You're welcome. Thanks for watching. Yes, Tonga has been impacted by this event but given the scale of the eruption, it could have been much worse.
Excellent video as usual!
Very interesting, thanks Shawn!
Fascinating, well-done vid.
Thx very much 👍
Great presentation. Thanks.
Very informative and factual. Bravo
The first place I came to see if you were talking about it.
Thank you Shawn
Very good, concise explanation of what happened. Thanks for your effort and posting this.
hey Greg you get hit by the storm? Shawn does interesting videos
Dodged a bullet! Just rain capped off with a trace of sleet. It was all around us though. Glad I didn't have to go out. I just stayed in and watched it on TV. :)
I'll subscribe. I like people that's easy to understand. :)
At least you white clays test your misles n places like haiti indonesia amd tongo and other places
Wow very informative thank you
This was officially a VEI 6 caldera forming eruption.. incredible to be alive during such an ultra-plinian eruption.
Very interesting geological story, great detail. Thanks Shawn. I believe this is on the Pacific ring of fire.
nice! it's like back to school ;)
Great info thank you sir
Thanks informations.
what is the reason why the pacific plate seems to be the plate subducted? is the basalt denser than the basalt of the other plates?
Hi Michael. Good question. Yes, the Pacific plate is more dense at this location than the adjacent plate. In general, the older an ocean plate is, the denser it is. Furthermore, older, denser ocean plates tend to subduct at a steeper angle than younger plates. I mentioned the Australian plate in my video since it is the largest neighbor, but there is actually a small microplate (the Tongan plate) between the Pacific and Australian plates. Near Tonga, the subducting Pacific plate is about 120-130 million years old and the adjacent Tongan plate is about 6 million years old. Hope this helps clarify a bit.
The last Krakatoa eruption created a tsunami too I believe. I remember seeing footage of it. It happened at night.
Totally off-tangent but your thumbnail makes this pre-eruption island look like a leaping roan antelope or gemsbok -- with its front legs missing.
Since those explosions unleash pressure underneath to the air, why did the air pressure remarkably reduce just before each explosion been heard?
So is there a chance like kakatora that it will have more than just a one big blasts ?
Yep. It has had several eruptions, but not so severe, since. If you're interested you should look up ABC Australia on TH-cam. They have a live news channel giving frequent updates and also some footage from Tonga when they still were able to send information out. The lines have been broken now by the eruptions but they are trying to reach them for aid. I think only some satellite are possible at the moment.
The area has a history of eruptions so we should expect more eruptive events. It is hard to say now if this large eruption will be followed by others. This event clearly released some pent up gases trapped in the magma chamber so there's a good chance this will be the largest eruption for the next few weeks or months. The only way to really forecast a future eruption would be to have a complete array of monitoring instruments in the area such as seismometers, tiltmeters, gas spectrometers, etc. The vent lies underwater which makes monitoring harder. Other countries like the US and New Zealand are looking to assist with monitoring and deploying some instruments so hopefully that will help.
What role, if any, does the water play in the explosiveness of an oceanic subduction zone?
Hi Chuck. Good question. The presence of water interacting with erupting lava usually makes the eruption more explosive. The water is flashed to steam by the heat. Turning water to steam causes expansion (volume increase).
@@shawnwillsey Cool. That's what I would expect. I see the satellite pics of the big plume. Is there a way to measure/know how much of the escaping material is steam and how much is ash or other materials?
@@chucklearnslithics3751 Another great question. The plume is indeed a combination of ash (and larger tephra) and gases (mostly water vapor). It's hard to say now but as eruption is analyzed over next few weeks, we should have more info on this.
Hi Shaun, Can you explain where we can find a camera/phone video of the pressure wave? The media are only showing satellite imagery.
The event is described variously as a “violent eruption” and “explosive”.
Yet volcanologists appear to have no links at present to on-the-ground footage, eg shot on phone or camera, of the explosion. There is some local footage online from Tonga but it’s from very far out and does not feature the large, pressure wave caught on satellite. Where’s the missing footage?
Here is a camera phone clip of the atmospheric pressure wave (or shockwave) as it passed through Fiji: twitter.com/DrChrisCombs/status/1482364024792784900 The remote location of the volcano (mostly underwater) and lack of monitoring equipment in area (including cameras) are why there is less documentation of this eruption than other ones.
what I found odd is that there was no warning whatsoever it just blew it's top..
It had erupted the day before and was active towards the end of last year in late December.
The media is just so typically shit at covering these things.
The eruptive activity in late Dec 2021 to early Jan 2022 was clearly a sign of unrest. Without an array of monitoring instruments and scientists to interpret the data, it is very difficult to forecast eruptions. Furthermore, the vent lies underwater.
Was it Chinese atomic here? I have just realized that?? Speculation here to find the truth ...
@@angelavanhorn2325 What?
To author Cool water, I apologies for my respond might not appropriate during this difficult time for citizen of Tonga...🙏✌️ I'm alarmed and deeply concern...
Thank you for explaining. News from social media and TV are over-exaggerated .
Would like to See a very slow motion movement from beginning to end of explosion..**
Nobody was daft enough to go out and record one, cos they'd rather not swap their lives for a chance at a viral video.
so, I am quite curious, and have no education on it otherwise, but why is it still considered an “underwater” event by you and other scientists if it has pictures of an above ground cone or island? Maybe its definition as above ground is like, tenuous? Like, when does an island become an island if formed by volcanic events? Just curious! Great video and explanations, thanks!
Satellite images show that the cone was no longer present on Jan 15, just two hours prior to the eruption. I believe the center of the island had collapsed. I hope the creator of this channel will do more content on this
The caldera of the volcano is actually larger than just the two original Islands. Those were merely the lip of the much larger crater.
Great question. The cone you see on the Google Earth image was the cone constructed during the 2015 eruption which was also a submarine eruption but ejected enough ash and volcanic material to accumulate and form a cone above sea level. The 2022 eruption site was just south of here so it was below the ocean surface and erupted from a new, different vent. New Zealand flew a plane over the site yesterday and parts of the island, which had been growing in late Dec-early Jan due to the less severe eruption at that time, were much smaller. Apparently, they subsided when the bigger eruption ensued. The resulting tsunami may have also caused more erosion of low lying areas. As for your question on island definition, I suppose its somewhat arbitrary. My take would be when land sits above sea level, its an island. However, if it is make of loose volcanic material, it might not last long!
Correction: the plume was 300 km across, not 3 miles
Could the people in Tonga be in danger of another explosion that will release a pyroclastic flow that could reach them and engulf them? They did get hit hard by the pressure wave.
Good question. The main island of Tonga, Tongatapu, is about 40 miles south of this volcano and this is a bit too far for a pyroclastic flow to travel. The pyroclastic flow would need to be generated by a large eruption producing an eruption column, then collapsing downward and travelling outward.
True. For an eruption to produce pyroclastic flows large enough to flow that far the eruption needs to be very large. At least as big as the 1883 Krakatau eruption, 1815 Tambora eruption, or the Santorini eruption roughly 1600 BC.
WHAT! 3 miles wide more like 350 km.
The caldera diameter is about 3 or so miles. Once the ash cloud rose and spread laterally, it was much larger as you state.
New Zealand plate right? New Zealand is an own continent right?
Was it andesitic eruption then
I think an underwater land slide from the collapse of the new vent caused the tsunami.
Could be. Right now it is unclear if the explosive eruption pushed the water column upward and generated the tsunami or if there was a submarine landslide as part of the volcano collapsed. Either mechanism is viable.
The latter. If a landslide happened, it would've been more significant. Look up the Molokai landslide and the energy from that event was pretty significant.
😱
What submarine eruption?
do you not understand those words?
You have a great take on Geology but you need to stop moving the mouse as much. Use it only when absolutely needed then let it alone. Makes it very hard to watch the video as much as I want to watch it.
Reunite Pangea, Stop continental drifting now !!
This is atomic bomb, mushroom cloud and expansion!!
Can the reporters giving us more moral and factual on this Tonga's eruption, please ....Thank you!