How Underwater Volcano Eruption caused a Tsunami Warning in the Pacific Ocean

On Saturday, January 15, an underwater volcano erupted near Tonga and was likely the biggest underwater eruption recorded on our planet in more than 30 years. The eruption caused Tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean that reached the western coast of the US.

The eruption was captured from space in real time as a huge cloud of ash, gas, and steam spewed 12.5 miles (!!) into the atmosphere!

Satellite images from JMA show the volcano eruption in Tonga on January 15.

Can you say "Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai"?

Tonga is a south pacific kingdom made out of more than 170 islands. About100,000 people call it home.

Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai is one of Tonga's islands, and it is a volcanic island.

The volcano itself is an underwater volcano that reaches sea level in 2009 after a volcanic eruption. It lies between two islands: Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haʻapai.

Above from left to right - Tonga's location, Tonga and the underwater volcano, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai island

What is an Underwater Volcano?

Underwater Volcanoes or Submarine Volcanoes are underwater vents in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Most underwater volcanoes are very deep but some exist in shallow water and can send material into the atmosphere during an eruption.

Above - Hunga Tonga eruption early on 15 January 2022, taken from the GOES-17 geostationary weather satellite positioned above the equator at 137.2°W longitude.

What is a Tsunami

A Tsunami is a Japanese word that means "harbor wave." It is one of nature's forces.

It is a large wave caused by movements in Earth's outer layer, or crust, which move ocean water. A Tsunami can speed across the ocean as fast as a jet plane. An earthquake, or a volcano eruption in the ocean, can cause a Tsunami.

If a volcano erupts in the ocean, the lava flowing out of the volcano takes up the space of the water around it. That water has to move and it can turn into a large wave. The bigger the volcanic eruption, the bigger the wave of water would be. When the wave reaches the shore, it grows taller because the ocean is shallower.

How do we know if a Tsunami is on its way?

After an oceanic earthquake or underwater volcanic eruption, a Tsunami warning is issued.

NASA has a tool called MISR (the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) that watches for Tsunamis from space. MISR can see sunlight reflecting off waves and measure their height.

Above: The MISR instrument on the Terra satellite takes pictures from different angles to look for tsunamis. Credit: NASA/JPL/Shigeru Suzuki and Eric M. De Jong, Solar System Visualization Project

So what Happened after the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai eruption?

The eruption caused a Tsunami on Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, with 4 feet high waves that flooded large areas.

Tsunami warnings went into effect across many Pacific Islands, parts of New Zealand, and as far as Japan, Peru and the United States' + Canada's pacific coast.

The eruption sent waves to the US West Coast, with some exceeding 3 and 4 feet in height, according to the National Weather Service. Tsunami waves were felt in California, Alaska and Hawaii.

Above - A tsunami has hit Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu.

Vocabulary

Underwater Volcano - volcanoes which are under the surface of the world's oceans

Tsunami - a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion

If You Teach a Dog Some Physics

Physics is a science that studies our natural world. Physics studies motion (how things move), forces (push and pull), and energy. The 'things' that are being studied in Physics can be super tiny or extremely large (like galaxies).

Sir Isaac Newton was a British scientist. He was a very curious kid and a smart one too. He is famous for discovering a force with which Earth pulls objects towards its center. This is called Gravity. He also came up with the three basic ideas of most motion. When ideas are tested and verified many, many times over the years, they become laws. Newton's ideas are now called Newton's Three Laws of Motion.

Even without learning Physics, we know that if we kick a ball it will move away from us, and if we let go of a toy we are holding up in the air, it will fall down.

Scientists were able to show that these ideas are intuitive (the power to know or understand something without thinking it through in a logical way) for babies as young as 7 months old and to some chimpanzees.

A new research revealed that even dogs understand that.

So how do you test this understanding in dogs? Can you ask a dog if it understands that a ball we placed on the floor will move only if another ball will hit it? Of course not! :-)

The scientists showed two different short videos to 14 dogs:

- In the first video they rolled a ball toward a resting ball. When the first ball hit the second ball, the second ball started to roll. There is no surprise here - we expect the second ball to start rolling (following the first law of motion that states that an object at rest will stay at rest until a force will act upon it).

- In the second video, the first ball (the one that was rolling) stopped moving before it hit the resting ball, BUT the second ball started to roll. Can the second ball start roiling by itself? This is against the physics laws and surprising to watch!!

Dogs' looking times and pupil dilation response reveal expectations about contact causality

Christoph J. Völter and Ludwig Huber

What Happened?

When the dogs watched the second video they were confused - - the dogs did not expect the second ball to move when nothing hit it. The dogs seemed to understand basic laws of physics that dictate how things move.

Famous Physicists

• Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - study the relationship between astronomy and physics and how objects fall down

• Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Explaining the theories of gravity and motion

• Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) Inventing the first electric battery

• Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) Created the first AC (Alternating Current) system

• Marie Curie (1867-1934) Discovered radioactivity and the elements polonium and radium

• Albert Einstein (1885-1962) Advancing the Theory of Relativity

• Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018) Explaining Black holes and Advances on the General Theory of Relativity and Quantum mechanics

Who Lives in A Pineapple Under the Sea?

Above - SpongeBob SquarePants character (Wikipedia)

Are you ready, kids?

Aye, aye, Captain!

I can’t hear you!

Aye, aye, captain!

Oh!

During a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dive at a depth of about 1.2 miles, marine scientists from NOAA (see below) discovered a real life SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star!

Above - SpongeBob and Patrick Star are best friends and neighbors, living under the sea in Bikini Bottom city.

Below - The real-life SpongeBob and Patrick side by side at the Retriever Seamount. (Image credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration/Christopher Ma)

"SpongeBob” (the yellow glass sponge) and “Patrick” (the pink sea star) were found one next to the other. These two animals might actually be new (i.e., undescribed) species!

“SpongeBob” is a glass sponge. Its bright yellow color is unusual for deep-sea animals, which are often white or orange. Glass sponges are animals commonly found in the deep ocean. Their tissue contains glass-like structural particles, called spicules, that are made of silica (hence their name). “Patrick” is a sea star - many sea stars in the deep ocean are predators of sponges and corals.

But, unlike the cartoon, the real “SpongeBob” and “Patrick” are not best friends. Actually it looks like “Patrick” is feeding on its yellow “friend"............

Video of a yellow sponge (genus Hertwigia) and pink sea star (genus Chondraster) collected during Dive 19 of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition. Images of the pair have captured the attention of the public and the media due to their resemblance to the cartoon characters SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration,

NOAA - (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) - provides data, tools, and services that support coastal economies and their contribution to the national economy.

ROV - Remotely Operated Vehicle - is a machine that is used to explore the deep ocean with someone controlling it at the water's surface. ROVs allow us to explore the ocean without actually being in the ocean. They have cameras (still and video), lights, water sampler, and other instruments.

VIDEO: What's the difference between an AUV and an ROV? Here's what you need to know in one minute. NOAA