Looking down on the plume from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano Eruption

Tonga's strange volcanic eruption was even more massive than we knew

The ferocious 2021 explosion blew out 2.3 cubic miles of rock, unleashing a 35-mile-high plume and a global tsunami that sent scientists racing to understand the blast. Now they're finally putting together the pieces.

In December 2021, a volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga, known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, began erupting in an event that culminated in an explosion so powerful it sent atmospheric ripples circling the planet multiple times. The eruption destroyed much of the volcanic peak that poked above the waves, shown here.
Photograph by Maxar via Getty Images

Crimson hues flushed across the early morning skies over the Kingdom of Tonga as Grace Frontin-Rollet spotted a pair of small rocky islands from the bow of the RV Tangaroa. Though the scene was picturesque, a tinge of sulfur in the air reminded the marine geologist what she and a team of scientists had traveled for six days over rough waters to see. In the expansive gap between the two bits of land, hidden on the ocean floor, lay the crater of a massive volcano that erupted just months before in one of the largest and strangest blasts ever seen.

"I don't think the scale of what had happened hit us until we reached the site," says

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