The 2022 underwater Tonga eruption likely happened because of THIS reason

The scientists are offering a new theory for the extreme force behind the 2022 Tonga eruption. They believe the built-up gas, and not the interaction of magma and water, might have been the prime culprit.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, an underwater volcano in the South Pacific Ocean, erupted on January 15, 2022, releasing the most powerful lightning storm ever recorded and also the first known mega-tsunami since ancient times.

While previous research signified that the underwater eruption was due to the two merging magma chambers, exactly what sparked the blast was unclear.

"Past explanations focused on magma meeting seawater," the researchers wrote in a new study published in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research on April 21. However, they found this unlikely due to limitations in heat transfer and a lack of clear satellite evidence.

Instead, they wrote, water depth and satellite observations point to a massive buildup of gas underneath a seal inside the volcano that unexpectedly broke on Jan15 after a series of smaller eruptions between Dec19, 2021, and Jan13, 2022.

"What we saw during this event was a Plinian eruption," lead author Richard Henley, an honorary professor of material physics at the Australian National University, said. "These are the common kind most people think of when picturing an erupting volcano."

However, Henley and his team propose a new factor behind the intense explosiveness of Plinian eruptions, including the record-breaking Tonga event. Their findings challenge past theories that blamed the violence on magma-seawater interaction. Notably, this suggests the immense power of the Tonga eruption wasn't dependent on its underwater location.

"The eruption at Hunga has opened our eyes," co-author Cornel de Ronde, principal scientist at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited in New Zealand, said in the statement.

(With inputs from agencies)