Tonga eruption’s volcanic plume reached above the stratosphere two times

The plume ejected by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano in January got in the mesosphere, the layer of environment above the stratosphere, two times throughout the eruption

By Madeleine Cuff

The huge plume of ash, gases and water ejected by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano throughout its eruption in January was so high it got in the mesosphere, satellite information has actually verified.

The volcanic plume was 57.5 kilometres high at its peak, the greatest ever taped for a volcano. It got in the mesosphere– which sits above the stratosphere– two times throughout the eruption, when at 0430 UTC on 15 January, and once again at 0450 UTC the exact same day.

The volcano is generally undersea in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. It is significant above the water surface area by 2 little, unoccupied islands. However, the eruption eliminated 6 individuals. Loud booms were heard as far as New Zealand and Australia.

” We were really fortunate that the eruption took place in a remote location,” states Simon Proud at the University of Oxford. “If this had actually taken place someplace more inhabited it would have been extremely ravaging.”

Usually, researchers depend on the temperature level of a volcanic cloud– and the surrounding clouds– to compute how high a volcanic plume reaches. With the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption the plume was too high for this approach to work.

Instead, Proud and his coworkers utilized satellite information and th