时间:2025-09-14 15:18:10 来源:网络整理编辑:知識
Boom.The profoundly powerful Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on Jan. 15 created a jarring appeara
Boom.
The profoundly powerful Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on Jan. 15 created a jarring appearance on Earth's surface and sent pressure waves around the globe. Now, NASA scientists say the volcano's plume of ash and gas reached a whopping 36 milesup in the atmosphere. That's likely the highest plume ever recorded in the satellite era.
The blast in the South Pacific came from an underwater volcano (Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai are just remnants of the volcanic peak.) As Mashable previously reported, volcanologists suspect that seawater interacting with the volcano's magma (molten rock) beneath the surface ultimately provided this eruption with the pressure for such a massive explosion.
"That's what gave this [eruption] outsized energy, we think," Josef Dufek, a volcanologist at the University of Oregon, told Mashable in January.
All this heat and superheated water "was like hyper-fuel for a mega-thunderstorm," NASA atmospheric scientist Kristopher Bedka told the space agency's Earth Observatory blog. "The intensity of this event far exceeds that of any storm cloud I have ever studied," Bedka added.
Tweet may have been deleted
The blast reached through the atmosphere's troposphere, which exists between the surface and some five to nine miles up in the atmosphere. This is where jetliners fly and our weather occurs. But then it blasted through the next level, the lofty stratosphere, too. That's some 22 miles thick.
Soon after the eruption, the plume reached the mesosphere. Meteors, popularly known as shooting stars, burn up in the mesosphere.
SEE ALSO:How climate change moved Earth's axisWhy Iceland's eruption is so gooey and thrilling
What Earth was like last time CO2 levels were this high
Why it's impossible to forecast the weather too far into the future
The great blast, topping off at 36 miles in elevation, was significantly higher than the historic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. That eruption reached 22 miles, and its sulfur dioxide gases (which soak up and scatter sunlight) had a cooling effect on the world.
The Tonga eruption likely won't cool the Earth. This eruption largely contained water vapor, not absorbent gases. But, as noted above, the eruption still had a global impact. The blast sent shock waves around Earth, multiple times.
The Weeknd teases new music in Instagram post2025-09-14 15:07
This visual history of video game hardware quite literally pulls your favorite consoles apart2025-09-14 15:03
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is now flying through the stars2025-09-14 14:59
Golden Globes 2019: the full winners list2025-09-14 14:32
We asked linguists if Donald Trump speaks like that on purpose2025-09-14 14:32
Trump's 'Smocking Gun' tweet gets mocked by people that know how to spell2025-09-14 14:20
PepsiCo robots deliver snacks to college students2025-09-14 14:16
10 best on2025-09-14 13:44
Olympic security asks female Iranian fan to drop protest sign2025-09-14 13:11
Now you can pre2025-09-14 13:08
MashReads Podcast: What makes a good summer read?2025-09-14 15:13
Apple chimes in on iPhone XR sales but offers no specifics2025-09-14 14:55
Apple sets App Store sales record during holidays, despite disastrous quarter2025-09-14 14:37
U.S. says 5G networks are 'vulnerable' to undermine Huawei: report2025-09-14 13:58
Teacher absolutely nails it with new homework policy2025-09-14 13:54
A bald eagle went rogue at college football game and landed on fans2025-09-14 13:24
NASA spacecraft OSIRIS2025-09-14 13:12
Pornhub responds to Starbucks porn ban with a clever new SFW idea2025-09-14 13:03
Man stumbles upon his phone background in real life2025-09-14 12:49
U.S. says 5G networks are 'vulnerable' to undermine Huawei: report2025-09-14 12:35