Hunga volcano eruption in 2022 continues to interrupt information
The Hunga Volcano within the South Pacific made waves when it erupted in January 2022. The blast that it created despatched strain waves throughout the planet, sending over 58,000 swimming swimming pools value of water into the ambiance, based on Mashable. The record-breaking eruption’s plume of ash and smoke additionally reached over 35 miles excessive, which is the very best ever noticed.
We’ve already seen volcanos creating newly birthed islands within the Pacific, and we all know that final 12 months’s Tonga Hunga volcano eruption was excessive sufficient to disrupt satellite tv for pc alerts in area. Now, researchers are saying that the eruption was so record-breaking that it additionally birthed lofty volcanic thunderstorms.
These thunderstorms are so notable as a result of they reportedly produced a number of the most intense lightning that we have now ever recorded, with the storm creating over 2,600 flashes of lightning per minute at its peak. For context, the earlier report holder for essentially the most intense lightning was simply 993 flashes per minute, so this storm greater than doubled that quantity.
The analysis additionally notes that the storm produced an enormous 150-mile ring of lightning. The video, which we’ve embedded on this article, showcases every lightning flash as a blue dot. They are saying that the lightning appeared to “trip the waves” that pulse outward via the storm’s huge cloud. NASA video additionally captured the eruption, together with photographs of the plume and aftermath.
Altogether, this record-breaking eruption has solely highlighted simply how volcanic eruptions can produce a number of the most excessive and disruptive climate on the planet. It’s actually an intriguing discovery, particularly once you have a look at what number of different information this eruption has damaged within the course of.
“Actually, every part about this eruption was supersized,” Alexa Van Eaton, a volcanologist on the Geological Survey, advised Mashable. Van Eaton was the lead on the brand new analysis highlighting the lightning storms produced by the record-breaking eruption. That analysis is offered within the journal Geophysical Analysis Letters.
