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Mahesh

22/11/22 06:17 AM IST

Volcanic Eruption in Tonga

In News 
  • Recently, a volcano erupted in the southern Pacific Island of Tonga, which triggered Tsunami waves around the Pacific.
  • The Tonga Islands occur along the Ring of Fire—a perimeter of heightened volcanic and seismic activity that encircles the Pacific Ocean basin.
Key Details 
  • It is an Undersea Volcanic Eruption consisting of two small uninhabited islands, Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga.
  • The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades.
  • During events in 2009 and 2014/15, hot jets of magma and steam exploded through the waves. But these eruptions were small, dwarfed in scale by the January 2022 events.
  • This is one of the massive explosions the volcano is capable of producing roughly every thousand years.
  • One of the reasons for it being highly explosive is the Fuel-Coolant interaction.
Volcano
  • A volcano is an opening or rupture in the earth’s surface that allows magma - which comes out as hot liquid and semi-liquid rock - volcanic ash and gases to escape.
  • The volcanic hotspots are places which are found where Earth’s tectonic plates come together.
  • A volcanic eruption is when lava and gas are released from a volcano - sometimes explosively.
Undersea Volcano
  • The undersea volcanic eruption happens in a volcano which is located under the ocean surface. There are an estimated one million undersea volcanoes, and most of them are located near the tectonic plates.
  • Apart from lava, these openings also spew out ash. These deposit on the ocean’s floor and lead to the formation of sea mounds - underwater mountains that are formed on the ocean floor but do not reach the water surface.
Source- The Hindu 

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