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Anatomy of a volcanic eruption undersea

Williams, Rebecca; Rowley, Pete

Authors

Pete Rowley



Abstract

In December 2021, an undersea volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai (hereafter called the Hunga volcano) began erupting. In January 2022 the eruption reached a powerful climax, triggering atmospheric waves that traveled around the globe and a tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean (1, 2). An estimated 75% of Earth's volcanoes are underwater, and 20% of all fatalities caused by volcanic eruptions since 1600 CE have been associated with underwater volcanism (3). Yet, explosive underwater eruptions are poorly understood. On page 1085 of this issue, Clare et al. (4) report that volcanic debris from the Hunga eruption traveled under the sea at an unprecedented distance and at record-breaking speed—more than 100 km, at velocities reaching 122 km/hour — and destroyed a vast network of seafloor telecommunication cables. Given that 95% of global communications are carried by seafloor cables, the findings highlight system vulnerabilities to underwater volcanism (5).

Citation

Williams, R., & Rowley, P. (2023). Anatomy of a volcanic eruption undersea. Science, 381(6662), 1046-1047. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk0181

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2023
Online Publication Date Sep 7, 2023
Publication Date Sep 8, 2023
Deposit Date Sep 8, 2023
Publicly Available Date Sep 26, 2023
Journal Science (New York, N.Y.)
Print ISSN 0036-8075
Electronic ISSN 1095-9203
Publisher American Association for the Advancement of Science
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Volume 381
Issue 6662
Pages 1046-1047
DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk0181
Keywords Multidisciplinary
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4377573

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works





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