Hunga Tonga
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Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai is a volcano located about south-southeast of Fonuafoou island in Tonga. The volcano is part of the highly active Tonga-Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a subduction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji. It lies about above a very active seismic zone. The island arc is formed at the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate.
Volcano and caldera
The volcano itself is a submarine volcano that breached sea level in 2009 due to a volcanic eruption and lies underwater between the two islands, which are the remnants of the western and northern rim of the volcano's caldera. The two islands are about apart, and each is about long and composed largely of andesite. Hunga Tonga reaches an elevation of, while Hunga Haapai comes to only above sea level. Neither island is large: Hunga Tonga is roughly and Hunga Haapai is in size. Neither island is developed due to a lack of an acceptable anchorage, although there are large guano deposits on each island.Submarine eruptions at a rocky shoal - about southeast of Hunga Haapai and south of Hunga Tonga - were reported in 1912 and 1937. Another eruption occurred from a fissure south-southeast of Hunga Haapai in 1988.
The islands figure in Tongan mythology as one of the few islands which were not overfished, and hence thrown down from heaven to land on earth. Tongans called them the islands which "jump back and forth". The first Europeans to see the islands were those with the Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire in 1616, although the British explorer Captain James Cook visited them several times in 1777 and learned their Tongan names.
Geography
The current extent of the island includes both the former islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haapai. The initial eruption linked the emerged land with the larger and more westerly Hunga Haapai. Hunga Tonga, in the northeast, has since become attached via a tombolo, and further sandy deposits have built up at the southern end of the connection with Hunga Haapai. The caldera itself has eroded rapidly in the south, originally allowing an opening of the crater to the ocean in the southeast. This has become separated from the sea by a shallow sandbar, forming a lagoon. Initially it was believed that the entire island would be eroded rapidly, but scientists now believe that the process may take decades.2009 eruption
On March 16, 2009, a submarine eruption near Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai began spewing steam, smoke, pumice, and ash thousands of feet into the sky above the ocean. By March 21, Tonga's chief geologist, Kelepi Mafi, reported lava and ash issuing from two vents—one on the uninhabited island Hunga Haapai and another about offshore. The eruption had filled the gap between the two vents, creating new land surface that measured hundreds of square metres. The eruption devastated Hunga Haapai, covering it in black ash and stripping it of vegetation and fauna.The volcanic eruption drew worldwide attention. The volcano was featured in a segment of the television program Angry Planet in 2009.
2014–15 eruption
In November and December 2014, volcanic activity at volcanoes and a series of earthquakes occurred north of Tonga for several weeks, indicating renewed volcanic activity in the area.A new eruption began at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai on December 19, 2014. Local fishermen reported a tall white steam plume rising from the ocean over the undersea volcanic mount. Satellite images taken on December 29 showed the eruption continuing, with a smoke and ash plume rising from the site, and discolored seawater. The eruption continued into 2015, with a tall ash cloud rising into the sky on January 6, 2015.
The eruption entered a new stage on January 11, 2015, when the volcano began sending ash plumes as high as into the sky. An Air New Zealand flight on January 12 had to be diverted to Samoa, while a number of other flights between New Zealand and Tonga were cancelled. An ash plume reached on January 13. Officials identified two vents, one on Hunga Haapai and another about offshore and underwater. Large rocks and wet, dense ash were being ejected up to into the air. By January 16, a new island had been formed by the explosion. Tongan officials estimated the new island to be wide, long, and high, although geologists said the new island would probably exist only a few months until ocean waves wore it down. Ash and acid rain were falling in an area about from the new island, and Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haapai had both been denuded of vegetation.
Despite the volcano's ongoing eruption, which was spewing a steam cloud into the air, international flights to Tonga resumed on January 16, as volcano and aviation experts deemed the eruption no longer a threat to airliners.
Geologists from Tonga and New Zealand who visited the volcano on January 19 said the eruption had quieted in the last 24 hours. They noted that nearly all the eruption was now coming from the vent on the new island, with steam clouds rising to a height of, and ash and rock being thrown to a height of about. Emission of ash was limited, with magma rocks hitting the ocean causing some steam explosions. The team found no floating volcanic debris, such as pumice rafts, and the smell of volcanic gases was intermittent. Tongan officials established a zone in diameter around the island to protect visitors from rock, ash, and acid rain.
Tongan officials declared the eruption at an end on January 26, after observing no new gas, ash, or rock emerging from the island vent. By this time, the island was wide, long, and high. The new island had joined with Hunga Haapai, and was about away from joining with Hunga Tonga. Locals visiting the island said seabirds were nesting.
In June 2015 the millionaire entrepreneur Ian Argus Stuart became the first person to overnight on this new island formation, spending 11 nights. Ian Argus Stuart survived eating nothing but seagull eggs and squid. Mr Stuart went to Hunga Tonga with the help of the Spanish explorer Alvaro Cerezo, who provides castaway experiences to remote desert islands around the planet.
Post-2015 scientific study
The volcanic ash that forms much of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai has reacted with the warm oceanic water around it. This chemical reaction has turned the ash into much harder rock, and volcanologists now believe the island will last for several decades rather than be eroded. This makes Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai only the third volcanic island in the last 150 years to survive more than a few months.Scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have been studying Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai, using it as a model for volcanic shapes on Mars. In an article published in late 2017, the scientists concluded that Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai has eroded in ways that are remarkably similar to the erosion patterns seen on similar landforms on Mars. The scientists noted that this suggests Mars was once flooded briefly by water, but that the water receded fairly quickly. Further study of the similarities between Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai and Martian volcanic landforms is needed, they said.
In October 2018, scientists visited the island and discovered that its surface is covered with gravel, sticky mud, and vegetation. The island has also been populated by a variety of bird life. They also found that the island seems to be eroding more quickly than previously thought, due to rainfall.