Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption (2022)
Also called: Hunga Tonga eruption · Topic: Interior of the Earth: Earthquakes, Volcanoes and the Layered Earth · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption was a huge eruption of an undersea volcano in Tonga, in the South Pacific, on 15 January 2022. It was the largest explosion ever recorded by modern instruments. It sent a tsunami across the Pacific, and its pressure waves travelled round the globe several times. It matters for climate because it put huge amounts of water vapour into the stratosphere (the calm upper layer of the atmosphere above the weather). Water vapour traps heat, so this eruption tends to warm the earth.
Example
The volcano lies in the Tonga island group in the South Pacific Ocean. It sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the belt of volcanoes and earthquakes around the Pacific. Tsunami waves from the 2022 eruption reached coasts across the Pacific.
Don't confuse with
- Mount Pinatubo eruption (1991): Pinatubo put mainly sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. This formed a sulphate haze that cooled the earth. Hunga Tonga put mainly water vapour there, which warms the earth.