The Hunga Tonga eruption
The largest explosion recorded since Krakatoa sends a plume into the mesosphere.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
- Where
- Hunga Tonga, Tonga · 20.5500° S, 175.3850° W
On 15 January 2022 the submarine volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted with a force estimated at several hundred megatons, sending an ash plume 57 kilometres up — the highest ever recorded, and the first observed to reach the mesosphere. The pressure wave circled the Earth several times and was detected by barometers worldwide; the tsunami killed people as far away as Peru. It injected an estimated 146 million tonnes of water vapour into the stratosphere, enough to measurably affect global temperature.