The initial tsunami wave created by the eruption of the underwater Hunga Tonga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga in January 2022 reached 90 metres in height, around nine times taller than that from the highly destructive 2011 Japan tsunami, new research has found.
An international research team says the eruption should serve as a wake-up call for international groups looking to protect people from similar events in future, claiming that detection and monitoring systems for volcano-based tsunamis are ’30 years behind’ comparable tools used to detect earthquake-based events.
Dr Mohammad Heidarzadeh, Secretary-General of the [International Tsunami Commission} (https://tsunamicommission.ipma.pt/officers/) and a senior lecturer in the University of Bath’s Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, authored the research alongside colleagues based in Japan, New Zealand, the UK and Croatia.
By comparison, the largest tsunami waves due to earthquakes before the Tonga event were recorded following the Tōhoku earthquake near Japan in 2011 and the 1960 Chilean earthquake, reaching 10 metres in initial height. Those were more destructive as they happened closer to land, with waves that were wider.
Read more at University of Bath
Photo Credit: Japan Meteorological Agency/NASA SPoRT via Wikimedia Commons
