![]() ![]() However, the Tonga eruption marks a stark contrast, because the water vapor it released can trap heat. Powerful volcanic eruptions usually cool surface temperatures on Earth because the resulting ash reflects sunlight. Both dissipated quickly - and neither of those events compare to the huge amount of water released by the Tonga event. Since NASA began taking measurements 18 years ago, only two other eruptions, the 2008 Kasatochi eruption in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile, sent substantial amounts of water vapor to such high altitudes. "We had to carefully inspect all the measurements in the plume to make sure they were trustworthy," said Millán. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. "We've never seen anything like it," said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose team said the water vapor readings were "off the charts." This satellite image shows an intact Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in April 2015, years before an explosive underwater volcanic eruption obliterated most of the Polynesian island in January 2022. ![]() ![]() Scientists say that the unprecedented plume, which dwarfed the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, could temporarily affect Earth's global average temperature. That's nearly four times the amount of water vapor estimated to enter the stratosphere from the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines. ![]()
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