Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Climate, Conflict, Politics, Africa. Editor https://t.co/b6HbxvmnsV (NZ) Reporting from France. https://t.co/LNVK0y9IS7 #nzpol #DesertRain

Jan 15, 2022, 18 tweets

Tonga underwater Eruption satellite images thread - @zoom_earth

1st Eruption:

The size of the initial eruption as measured at its initial peak 13th Jan.

Technical tweet about first eruption from @pppapin

Faster animation of first eruption.

1st eruption closeup of the initial explosion phase only 6 hours.

Second eruption, 12 hours - slow motion.

In his second tweet @pppapin shows how the second larger eruption today was more intense.

2nd eruption faster, closeup.

And finally 1st eruption again fast close up 3 hours.

Still image showing the size of largest extent of third eruption which started 10 hours ago this morning Tonga time.

These satellite images are spaced just 10 minutes apart.

Next four images in the sequence. The second two images are at smaller scale as the explosion is too large.

Sequence continues. And in this one there are signs of a fourth eruption.

Correction: These 3rd and 4th eruptions took place in the evening local time - hence the poor imagery.

This third eruption is definitely significantly larger again, with a very large secondary explosion with an initial eruption blast radius 150kms larger than the initial eruption 13/1

The plume is about to reach Suva Fiji.

Animation 12 hours of the 3rd Tonga Eruption - far and away the largest yet.

This satellite animation shows the visible satellite signature of the secondary explosion which occurred at roughly 7am GMT.

3rd eruption 2nd shockwave.

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling