James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR radio that “the number we’ve gotten is about 10 megatons, 10 million tons, equivalent to TNT.”
And according to Michael Poland of the US Geological Survey, “could be the strongest explosion on earth since 1883, when the Krakatoa volcano exploded in Indonesia”.
Two New Zealand Navy ships to arrive in Tonga on Friday with water supplies essential for the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami and virtually cut off from the outside world.
Hundreds of houses on Tonga’s small outer islands were destroyed, with at least three dead, after Saturday’s massive eruption triggered a tsunami that swept through the area, home to 105,000 people.
The Red Cross said its teams in Tonga confirmed that tsunami saltwater and ash are contaminating the drinking water of tens of thousands of people.
“Ensuring access to clean water is a critical and immediate priority … as there is an increasing risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea,” said Katie Greenwood of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Societies. the Red Crescent.
New Zealand said Tonga, one of the few countries free of the coronavirus, had agreed to take delivery of two of its ships, the Aotearoa and the Wellington, despite concerns that an imported Covid-19 outbreak would exacerbate its crisis.
Simon Griffiths, captain of the Aotearoa, said his ship carries 250,000 liters of water, along with other supplies, and has the capacity to produce another 70,000 liters a day.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted about 65 kilometers from the Tongan capital, with a blast heard 2,300 kilometers away in New Zealand, sending tsunamis across the Pacific Ocean.
James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the force of the eruption was estimated to be the equivalent of between five and 10 megatons of TNT, or more than 500 times that of the nuclear bomb the United States dropped. over the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
Waves of up to 15 meters hit the outer island group of Ha’apia, destroying all houses on Mango Island, as well as the west coast of Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, where 56 houses were destroyed or severely damaged, according to the prime minister’s office.
Tongan communities abroad have posted pictures of their families on Facebook, giving a glimpse of the devastation, with houses reduced to rubble, fallen trees, cracked roads and sidewalks, and everything covered in gray ash.
Tonga has also been largely offline since the volcano damaged its only underwater fiber-optic communication cable. Its owner said it will probably take a month or more to fix.
The archipelago has 176 islands, 36 of them inhabited. Its main airport, Fua’amotu International, was not damaged by the tsunami, but was covered in ash, which had to be cleaned by hand. A local official said aid flights from New Zealand and Australia are likely to start as early as Thursday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with his Tongan counterpart Siaosi Sovaleni. He said two Hercules aircraft are ready to leave with humanitarian supplies and telecommunications equipment, and a naval ship, the Adelaide, is preparing to leave Brisbane with water purification equipment and additional humanitarian supplies.
Source From: Ambito
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