The initial tsunami wave created by the eruption of the underwater Hunga Tonga Ha'apai volcano in Tonga in January 2022 reached 90 metres in height, around nine times taller than that from the highly destructive 2011 Japan tsunami, new research has found.
An international research team says the eruption should serve as a wake-up call for international groups looking to protect people from similar events in future, claiming that detection and monitoring systems for volcano-based tsunamis are '30 years behind' comparable tools used to detect earthquake-based events.
[...] By comparison, the largest tsunami waves due to earthquakes before the Tonga event were recorded following the Tōhoku earthquake near Japan in 2011 and the 1960 Chilean earthquake, reaching 10 metres in initial height. Those were more destructive as they happened closer to land, with waves that were wider.
[...] The research team found that the tsunami was unique as the waves were created not only by the water displaced by the volcano's eruption, but also by huge atmospheric pressure waves, which circled around the globe multiple times. This 'dual mechanism' created a two-part tsunami – where initial ocean waves created by the atmospheric pressure waves were followed more than one hour later by a second surge created by the eruption's water displacement.
[...] The research team also found that the January event was among very few tsunamis powerful enough to travel around the globe – it was recorded in all world's oceans and large seas from Japan and the United States' western seaboard in the North Pacific Ocean to the coasts within the Mediterranean Sea.
Journal Reference:
Mohammad Heidarzadeh, Aditya Riadi Gusman, Takeo Ishibe, et al. Estimating the eruption-induced water displacement source of the 15 January 2022 Tonga volcanic tsunami from tsunami spectra and numerical modelling [open], Ocean Engineering, 261, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.112165
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday August 24 2022, @01:33AM (4 children)
https://www.livescience.com/tonga-eruption-water-vapor [livescience.com]
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 3, Funny) by anubi on Wednesday August 24 2022, @02:26AM (3 children)
From Live science
In the new study, researchers used data collected by NASA's Aura satellite to assess the amount of water that was thrust into the stratosphere, the second layer in Earth's atmosphere, which extends from 4 to 12 miles (6 to 20 kilometers) up to 31 miles (50 km) above the planet's surface. The results revealed that 160,900 tons (146,000 metric tons) of additional water vapor had entered the stratosphere since the volcano erupted, reaching a maximum altitude of 33 miles (53 km), which is in the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that extends from the top of the stratosphere to an altitude of 53 miles (85 km).
From another source...
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150067/lake-evaporation-on-the-rise [nasa.gov]
Each year, roughly 450,000 cubic kilometers of water evaporate from the world’s oceans. An additional 71,000 cubic kilometers evaporate from the land, largely from soil and plants, but lakes play a role too. According to the new research, while lakes only account for 1.57 percent of the global land area, they contribute 2.37 percent of the water evaporated over land each year.
From Quora:
https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-1cubic-kilometer-of-water-weigh?share=1 [quora.com]
How much does 1cubic kilometer of water weigh?
This demonstrates the simplicity of the metric system. Measures are all easily calculated by moving the decimal point left or right from the base measure unit. A kilometer is 1,000 meters - let’s start with that. 1000 m x 1000m x1000 m = 1,000,000,000 - 1 billion cubic meters. Now we need to know the density of water to convert that volume to weight. As it happens, water is used as a base compound in the metric system. 1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram, water freezes at 0 degrees C and boils at 100 degrees C. A liter of water has 1/1000 the volume of a cubic meter of water. So, again just by manipulating decimal points, we see that 1000 liters x 1 billion cubic meters gives 1 trillion liters, or 1 trillion kilograms.
From conversion tables:
1 ton (US) is 907.18 kg.
So, if 1 cubic km of water 1 trillion Kg, or 1.03 billion US Tons...while 450,000 cubic km leave the ocean every year, does 160,000 US Tons of water really give me much to worry about?
Geez, a cow farted!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday August 24 2022, @05:12AM (1 child)
Mea culpa...
Possibly I km3 water vapor ? It didn't say.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by inertnet on Wednesday August 24 2022, @07:41AM
146,000 metric tons is 146,000 m3 of water. Divided by 1 billion is 0.000146 km3. Not that impressive, compared to the world annual total.
But this happened over a couple of days from a single point on the globe, which makes it really impressive again. The amount of energy that went into that is breathtaking.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Wednesday August 24 2022, @04:47PM
It's fantastic, except when 0.5 mg becomes 5 mg [myamericannurse.com] with deadly consequences. (search for "naked decimal" within the page). It's not an isolated case either. Pharmacists have to make an effort in training. [uspharmacist.com] Maybe a system other than base-10 is needed for pharmacy, not necessarily old school "grains" and other antiquated measures; but something built from the ground-up to help prevent such errors.
Nothing is perfect.
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