According to scientists, the amount of energy released into the atmosphere is equivalent to an explosion of more than a gigaton of TNT, the largest recorded value for any other natural disaster.
The magazine “Atmosfera” notes that Russian and Kazakh scientists, headed by a senior researcher at the Institute of Physics. Lebedev, Alexander Shepetev discovered ion disturbances caused by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano last year, propagating to a distance of 12,000 km from the volcano.
The researchers say: “The eruption of the Honga Tonga volcano on January 15, 2022 caused disturbances in the ionosphere, which we recorded 12,000 km from the site of the volcano in the northern part of the Tien Shan (Kazakhstan). Our calculations of the characteristics of these fluctuations showed that this catastrophe released into the atmosphere a huge amount of energy, equivalent in strength to the explosion of two billion tons of TNT.
It is noteworthy that the Honga Tonga volcano until January 2022 was located on the island of the same name in the South Pacific Ocean within the Tonga archipelago. The volcano woke up in December 2021 and a series of explosions occurred, culminating in its eruption in mid-January 2022. This catastrophe led to the destruction of the “old” island and the emergence of two new islands, Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai.
Source: TASS
