Hunga Tonga exploded releasing energy equivalent to up to 37 megatons of TNT – The tremor (shock wave) was recorded around the world, even in Greece twice
The eruption of the Santorini volcano is one of the most violent ever recorded, say researchers-professors of the Magma and Volcanoes Laboratory of Clermont-Ferrand, France, among others.
Tom Druitt, one of the research professors who took part in an international expedition that published its findings in the prestigious journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the scientific work carried out in deep water in and around the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field in Greece revealed one of the largest eruptions ever recorded in the southern Greek arc.
According to a report on the Franceinfo website, Druitt, who co-led the expedition, said that “Santorini is now an emerging volcano but in the past it was purely underwater”.
Regarding the discovery – which he described as “excellent” – of the mission in Santorini, he emphasized, among other things, that it concerns “one of the largest eruptions that have ever occurred in this volcanic arc.
This discovery shows us a much larger example than the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption in the Pacific – an underwater eruption, which until then was the most violent eruption ever recorded.
In Santorini, we have an example 15 times bigger.”
The catastrophic eruption of Hunga Tonga
The Hunga Tonga volcano erupted violently on January 5, 2022, releasing energy equivalent to 9 to 37 megatons of TNT.
The shock wave was heard as far away as the United States while the tremor (shock wave) was recorded around the world, even in Greece twice.
The eruption plume reached a height of 55 kilometers – the longest recorded by satellites, surpassing that of the 1991 Pinatubo eruption.
The eruption destroyed much of the volcanic island and caused a tsunami that hit the entire Pacific coast, including the US and Japan.
In fact, two people drowned in big waves in Peru.
The tsunami destroyed dozens of homes on the archipelago’s main island, and volcanic ash heavily contaminated water supplies and covered the islands, making it difficult for planes and ships to reach the islands.
The amount of damage was estimated by the World Bank at 90 million dollars, about 20% of the country’s annual GDP.
Source: Skai
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