Two days after the massive eruption of a submarine volcano near the island kingdom of Tonga, the extent of the damage in the South Seas archipelago is still unclear. Military planes from New Zealand and Australia are en route to the area for an aerial survey. Meanwhile, Australia’s Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center has identified another “major eruption.” The latest outbreak was registered on Sunday evening, it said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also said it had detected large waves in the area. “This could be due to another explosion from Tonga volcano,” the statement said. “There are no known earthquakes of any significant magnitude that could produce this wave.”
Military aircraft from New Zealand and Australia were en route to the area on Monday for an aerial survey. Communications there continued to be severely affected, particularly on some of Tonga’s more remote islands, which have not been contacted since the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai eruption. Tonga has around 170 islands, 36 of which are uninhabited.
Saturday’s eruption could be heard thousands of miles away. It triggered tidal waves and put many Pacific countries on alert. Tsunami waves were recorded not only in Tonga, but also in New Zealand, Japan, Alaska and South America. Aid organizations warned of health damage from the huge ash clouds and advised Tonga residents to wear masks and only drink bottled water.
The ash plumes triggered by the eruption have now even reached Australia’s east coast, the Weather Watch New Zealand weather service said. The cloud is moving west across Queensland and will cover much of the state during the day, it said.
According to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand wants to send a second Hercules aircraft with important relief supplies to Tonga. If the runway in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, is damaged, the materials could also be jettisoned, Ardern told journalists on Monday.
“Flights operated today will help us identify where there is a need,” Ardern said. “We know there is an urgent need for water and we hope that Hercules can launch today to meet that need.” It is still unclear whether there were dead or injured.
As a result of the seaquake, an important undersea cable was also severed, meaning that the Internet in Tonga went down. The other communication links were also disrupted, but mobile phones seemed to be working at least partially, albeit only locally and not internationally.
“It is a terrible time but Nuku’alofa is still standing, electricity has been restored to many homes,” New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Tonga, Peter Lund, said on Facebook. The capital lies under a layer of volcanic ash. Cleanups should begin this week.
The submarine volcano, about 65 kilometers from Tonga’s capital, erupted on two days in a row. While only small tsunami waves were registered after the first eruption on Friday, the second eruption on Saturday was also heard in New Zealand and Fiji, 2,000 kilometers away.