A monitoring station based in Australia has spotted this new eruption on the Sunday evening, and big waves have been located in the area. The previous one has already caused tsunamis to the Pacific during the weekend,
Le Monde with AFP
Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai may not have finished expressing themselves. Another “big eruption” was detected on this volcano, located in the middle of the South Pacific about 65 km from the capital of Tonga, Nuku’alofa, and already at the origin of Tsunamis in the Pacific after entering the eruption on Friday January 14th.
The last eruption was captured Sunday at 11:10 pm, Paris Time, according to an alert issued on Monday 17 January, by the Darwin Australian Volcanic Observation Center (VAAC). The Tsunamis Alert Center in the Pacific, based in Hawaii (USA), also stated that they have localized large waves in the region: “This could come from another explosion of the Tonga volcano. There is no has no known known earthquakes that generate such a wave “.
The tsunami caused by the powerful friday eruption caused significant damage in the Tonga Islands. No victim has been reported in the archipelago, but the tsunami, at 10,000 km away, drowned two women, on a beach in Northern Peru, because of “abnormal waves”, announced Sunday the National Center local emergency operations.
“Nuku’alofa is covered with a thick cloud of volcanic ash, but otherwise the situation is calm and stable,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, after entering into contact with the Embassy of his country in Tonga. M me Arden emphasized that the extent of damage was difficult to assess in the small kingdom of the Pacific, the communications being cut.
A submarine communication cable possibly sectioned
In particular of a possibly sectioned submarine communication cable, the Tonga Islands could still be deprived of the Internet during “two weeks”, said Monday to the France-Press agency (AFP), the director Southern Cross Cable Networks Network, Dean Veverka.
New Zealand sent an early Monday recognition aircraft for “an initial impact assessment on the zone and the low elevation islands”. Tonga also accepted an Australian offer to send a surveillance plane, according to Canberra. Australia also prepared “essential humanitarian supplies” to be sent. The United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) was preparing emergency supplies for Tonga, in coordination with Australia and New Zealand. The United States and the World Health Organization have also indicated that they were ready to send help.
Trusted spaces show the moment of the eruption, Friday, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, on one of the uninhabited islands of Tonga. The eruption, which has been heard until Alaska, lasted eight minutes and sent gas, ash and smoke plumes with several kilometers high. The American Geological Institute (USGS) recorded the eruption as equivalent to a magnitude earthquake 5.8 at a zero depth.
1.2 meter waves sprang on the capital of Tonga, where the inhabitants fled to the heights, leaving behind flooded homes, while stones and ash fell from the sky.
The eruption triggered tsunamis in the Pacific, with waves of 1.74 meters measured in Chanaral, Chile, and smaller observed along the Pacific Coast, Alaska to Mexico. Waves of about 1.2 meters struck the Pacific coast of Japan. In California, the city of Santa Cruz was flooded by a tidal wave generated by the tsunami.
The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano had emerged during a rash in 2009, and spitting so many big rocks and ashes in 2015 than a new island two kilometers long over one kilometer wide and 100 meters high formed.