General Volcanic Activity Thread!

[Guest]

1metre tsunami in Hawaii and west coast of the US under tsunami advisory. This is becoming quite serious. Pretty much all comms with Tonga now cutoff. 

[Guest]

Some minor flooding being forecast to hit the west coast of the US in the next hour. There really must of been a large collapse of something. 

[The PIT]

1 hour ago, Alderc said:

Some minor flooding being forecast to hit the west coast of the US in the next hour. There really must of been a large collapse of something. 

Got links to that because tsunami's were forecast to be local. Apparently there's a lot of fakes news now going out tsunami's from indonisa being used as videos.

[Beverley Lass]

6 minutes ago, The PIT said:

Got links to that because tsunami's were forecast to be local. Apparently there's a lot of fakes news now going out tsunami's from indonisa being used as videos.

Tsunami advisory in effect for US as waves hit Tonga following volcanic eruption

EDITION.CNN.COM

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A tsunami has hit Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, and reportedly sent waves flooding into the capital after an underwater volcano in the South...

 

[The PIT]

2 hours ago, Quicksilver1989 said:

Any confirmation of the VEI? 

VEI 5-6 eruptions can impact global temperatures if certain factors allign (volcanoes aren't my speciality but I believe this happens if sufficient SO2 and ash reaches high enough into the atmosphere).

Of course, the additional complication is that this was an underwater eruption.

If the explosion could be heard 1000s of km away, just how loud would it have been if this volcano was above the sea surface?

Frightening power.

No looking at the eruption column size put sit at a VEI 4. However we won't know for a while how much material has been erupted for a while. I've seen another table that puts it at VEI 5. So lets say 4 to 5 at the moment.  Any climate effect will depend on what gasses were ejected and in what quantities. Most likely any minor climate effect will be confined to the southern hemisphere. It's probably not going to be big enough.

Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)

ETE.CET.EDU

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Exploring the Environment - Global Climate Change (ETE-GCC) Modules developed by the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University includes six new global climate change problem-based...

 

4 minutes ago, Beverley Lass said:

Tsunami advisory in effect for US as waves hit Tonga following volcanic eruption

EDITION.CNN.COM

---

A tsunami has hit Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, and reportedly sent waves flooding into the capital after an underwater volcano in the South...

 

Cheerz for that.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, The PIT said:

Got links to that because tsunami's were forecast to be local. Apparently there's a lot of fakes news now going out tsunami's from indonisa being used as videos.

It’s definitely not local now, NHK has reported an observed 1.2metres in Japan. West coast of the US forecasting a 3ft wave there. It’s a trans-pacific event. 

[Bullseye]

 

 

 

[James102]

When will the pressure wave arrive in the UK?

[SnowBear]

I have a feeling there will be no island left, blown the top off it and now back under the sea to restart the building cycle. 

This probably will reoccur a few times in the future (decades) before the cone is large enough to support above sea level material, then you move towards possibly a Krakatoa type eruption which takes the centre out and leaves the crater rim above sea level.

4 minutes ago, James102 said:

When will the pressure wave arrive in the UK?

It won't I doubt, or at least not noticeable.

Edited January 15, 2022 by SnowBear
Spelling

[Bullseye]

Not yet confirmed but another report of VEI 5, just note prior to this morning eruption was at VEI 2. 

[James102]

4 minutes ago, SnowBear said:

It won't I doubt, or at least not noticeable.

5 mbar in NZ, I'd have thought we might manage 0.1 in Europe.

[Guest]

2-2.5ft waves in California now. 
 

https://twitter.com/mattf_norcal/status/1482387968807505920?s=21

Edited January 15, 2022 by Alderc

[Guest]

I’m really surprised looking at some of the waves in California, they are similar those generated by the 2011 Japan earthquake. Given that unzipped hundreds of miles of fault lines it’s super impressive a single explosion from a volcano has had this far a reach.

[Lauren]

Absolutely insane. Horrific and amazing in equal measure.

[weatherobsuk]

Its got to be chaos at the islands closest to 'ground zero' with a population est of 105,697 just in Toga itself. Complete darkness with no power, consistent lightning flashes in all directions, rocks raining from the sky, verified Tsunami surges of +2 meters flowing over the islands which are barely above sea-level, no communication in or out for the past few hours, ear-deafening explosions still going on and being heard in parts of Australia & New Zealand 2000km away.

Post-eruption analysis is going to be interesting, regarding whether the underocean landslide was the cause or result of ocean-water intrusion into the shallow magma chamber beneath the volcano.

[Bullseye]

Obviously much more important concerns as detailed well by @SNOW_JOKE above but with regard to whether this eruption may be large enough to have any impact of global temperatures at the moment this is still far away from the threshold as detailed in below tweet but next data should be in tomorrow on this: 

 

 

[John S2]

8 hours ago, RabbitEars said:

I've asked this in the volcano thread but I'll ask here too... what, if anything, might the effect be on our weather or even the northern hemisphere's pattern from the large eruption in the Pacific Ocean? And what is the likely time lag?

The majority of volcanic eruptions have little effect on temperature or weather patterns globally, but occasionally sufficient particles are projected high into the atmosphere and block sunlight. This can depress global temperatures for a couple of years and also affect weather patterns.

The most recent eruption of this magnitude was Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. Global temperatures were lowered for a couple of years following until the particles dispersed.

Another example is the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, followed by the 'year without a summer' in 1816.

[matty40s]

 

[summer blizzard]

What VEI5 eruptions have we had since Pinatubo (VE6). Did any get higher than 19km.

[The PIT]

5 minutes ago, summer blizzard said:

What VEI5 eruptions have we had since Pinatubo (VE6). Did any get higher than 19km.

Don't think we've had any to be honest.

[weatherobsuk]

I was thinking Chaiten but that was a moderate VEI4, a quick google search brings up this one in 2011-2012.

2011–2012 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

[The PIT]

Yup that was a five

[Daniel*]

2 hours ago, Bullseye said:

Obviously much more important concerns as detailed well by @SNOW_JOKE above but with regard to whether this eruption may be large enough to have any impact of global temperatures at the moment this is still far away from the threshold as detailed in below tweet but next data should be in tomorrow on this: 

 

 

 

That was before the biggest eruption. . We don’t have an up to date plot yet.

 

[Evening thunder]

Bit of a pressure oscillation here recently, and basically the same pattern on stations around the country so it's not local meteorology. Could this be the pressure wave from the eruption? 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Evening thunder

[Eagle Eye]

1 minute ago, Evening thunder said:

Bit of a pressure oscillation here recently, and basically the same pattern on stations around the country so it's not local meteorology. Could this be the pressure wave from the eruption? 

Seems like it