This is becoming a trend. While not the first to report things, UA-camrs are often doing much better reports than actual news media. This gave me a far better idea of what's going on than anything I saw in the news, and there are other channels out there doing similar quality work on other topics, such as Caspian Report for political matters.
Thank you Alex for covering this eruption. I’m a volcanologist and this video is one of the best presentations I’ve seen. Even though the boring tables and numbers are left out for general public, there’s still a lot of in depth information.
@@glytchd What if, they where just telling the same story, with the same source material and made a similar video about it, but in their respective style. It could just be a coincidence
So question: I noticed along with the rest of the world the wave being pushed NW to SE, was that because of the angle of the eruption? In other words, is it known, if this was a somewhat lateral eruption like Mt. St. Helens?
I always remember learning just how awful volcanic ash is to your lungs, it has a similar composition to cement in powdered form, when it's breathed in it reacts with the fluids in your lungs turning it into a version of concrete, you would drown in cement as your lungs collapse, so if you find yourself in the position of watching volcanic ash falling around you, go inside
Yeah it's also VERY heavy for it's size and even just an inch of it on a roof can cause a collapse so be careful to stay under a supported area and cover your mouth with something just in case.
According to my experiendce from eruptions in my country, Iceland, the vegetation recovers incredibly fast after being covered in volcanic ash. It is actually incredible. I hope this will be the case in the Tonga islands.
To add on, burning farm land and spreading ash has been a practice used by many farming communities known as slash and burn. It makes a field called a swidden for a few months or years but eventually it grows back because the ash from burned trees and plants gives tons of nutrients to the soil. It allows for better grow seasons and helps negate the need for GMO’s. I hope tonga has a strong recovery from this
That's the case after Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991. After all that devastation, the lahar actually fertilized the lands surrounding the volcano and vegetation recovered pretty quickly.
We heard the eruptions as loud booms. We live in Fiji 800 km away. You could feel it in the ground, the house, in the air, and through your body. It was amazing for us but sad for our Tongan neighbors.
I totally get what you mean. It's incredible to experience it from afar. I live in California and went to school with many Tongans and they were terrified because they couldn't get ahold of their families. When you care about your friends, you feel almost as helpless as they do and it was heartbreaking for those few days when there was no communication from the island. It's like holding your breath. 😔 But I still have to admire nature's power.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
@@andrewlawrence8490 you should look into antipsychotics, they'll probably help you. Your brain and your thinking is polluted. You do realize that "white object" you're talking about is many many miles wide, right? And that it is a cloud? Obviously you don't realize that, because you're the opposite of smart.
Omg as a Tongan today marks a year since that erruption and thankful God we are still alive ❤ and the thunder like sound I will never forget my ears had still had effect like ringing for two days
It's a complete Re-telling of what Scott Manley posted... A WEEK AGO. WHEN IT HAPPENED. Check out his review. when everyone else was just posting 10 second clips on loop and speculating.. THis feels like a rip with a bit of boot polish.
It's not really, there's some inaccuracies in this video. The picture of the volcanic island spit in two is wrong, that's actually a photo before the big eruption. The photo shows were the middle part of the island slipped into the sea, a caldera collapse (caldera is pronounced wrong in the video), which was a catalyst for the massive volcanic eruption that followed (a plinian eruption).
I dunno man. He downplayed the very serious tsunami's. They've destroyed housing, damaged ports, fresh water supplies, sewer systems AND the cause of death. Strange information to overlook.
Have you ever wondered why the satellite camera had its crosshairs pointed right at the epicentre prior to the recorded “explosion”. This was a bomb. Multiple sleuths around the world have satellite footage and have zoomed in, slowed down, and confirmed, an incoming tic tack like object. Come into frame, creating an ocean splash just above the “explosion”. I believe the Chinese were ironically weapons testing that day. And / or is someone trying to purposefully break the tectonic plates near the west coast of North America !!?? 🌎😡
@@kevinparkernde I can only assume it was either convenient placement based on how many satellites are orbiting earth or there might have been some pre warning signs that there might be some activity.
For anyone who’s told to stay indoors as ash falls, friggin’ do it. That ash could likely contain microscopic shards of silica, which cause horrible respiratory symptoms including bleeding from the lungs.
I heard the explosive eruption here in New Zealand (upper North Island, east coast), and it was very loud, considering how far away it was. To me, it sounded like someone had dropped a couple of fully loaded dumpsters on the road in front of my house, despite me being way down the back of the house, which is quite large, and made from concrete and brick. It would have been interesting to have been outside when the shockwaves passed over!
I know you only mentionned this as an ad, but for whom might be interested. The Santiaguito in Guatemala is one of the top 10 most dangerous volcanoes on Earth. It has, as you mentionned, only existed for a little more than 100 years. The breathtaking view you mentionned was taken from the Santa María, the volcano that was the main one. Its lava was very viscuous and dried quickly, which closed its crater down pretty deep. Upon an eruption, a hole was opened next to the Santa María: the Santiaguito was born in an overwhelming, destructive eruption. It shattered the Santa María's flank; the damages are still evident to this day. The Santiaguito kept growing up since then, being almost always active. If you ever go to Guatemala, and wander around Retalulehu, Mazatengo or Quetzaltenango, you might see the couple volcanoes: a big, broken one, and a small, active one. My thoughts go to the victims of the Tonga volcano.
I was in Guatemala in 2013 and I only found out about their volcanos once I was home and it bummed me out that I didn't get to see it. Although, we did go to a resort town on the edge of a crater and there's islands in the middle where people live and work. That in itself was cool but it's not like seeing an active volcano.
6:10 I find this picture amazing. It shows how countries and landmass are born, and how water seems to immediately settle the barren island with green life. Just beautiful
This isnt how islands are born. This is how they die. If this explosion hadnt happened, THEN it would have been how land is made. This was pure destruction
Prayers out to the people of Tonga! Hope they recover from this and come back stronger! Peace to my Polynesian people affected by this volcanic eruption!
What little news we have seen so far indicates that they have responded very well, with good evacuations. I hope the rest of the world helps them to make a quick recovery, and that the families of the 3 people we know to have died so far find peace.
Much love, respect and prayers to the Polynesian people 🙏. I'm way over here in Tucson, Arizona but enjoy every night the fruits of there hard work, in particular Kava Kava 😋. My most favorite is the type from the island of Vanuatu and Fiji👌. We are fortunate enough to have vendors that import direct from those regions and know that is their number one staple export 🇹🇴🙏
Malo e lelei, and ofa atu. Much love and prayers to the kingdom of Tonga 😞🙏. No one is a strong believer in the gospel and Jesus Christ than the people of Tonga. Like the Phoenix, they shall rise from the ash and rebuild.
We live on the coast of Northern California and heard the explosion Friday night. Thought it was a sonic boom at first. But once the tsunami watch for the west coast if the US went into effect, and we found out why, we realized the double boom we'd heard was actually the shock wave from the Hunga Tonga Hunga Haapai explosion.
Now you guys have me double guessing if I did hear it or not. We hear so many sonic booms from Edwards AFB that I don't register it anymore. I still say I didn't hear it but, you can't go back in time to know for sure. 😔😅
Hi I'm from Tonga, all my 28 years of life I have never been more terrified, unfortunately I did not have time to video the eruption but thanks for this, 15th of Jan 2022, a day will we never forget
Definitely the best video on this volcano so far. I actually heard and felt the Shockwave from my house in Waikato, New Zealand. It sounded like a fireworks display in the distance and we could feel the pressure changes in our ears. I can only imagine how loud it was for the people of Tonga.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
I really liked Scott Manley's video on the topic and it's still the best I've seen so far. But I also like how Alex imposed the ash cloud on Europe for scale.
@@SteveJB Scott's a fellow Scot, so I have a soft spot lol, but I have seen a few on other channels that are just lacking in details like Alex and Scott included. Anton Petrov did a decent job, but I think he may have kinda rushed it to get it out and missed key items like the 2014 eruption and it's implications.
Just recently discovered these videos, and instantly grown fond of the high level of knowledge shared, the way they are made and the narration. Thanks a million!!
All the news media wants to do is frighten you and make you feel helpless. You actually opened a discussion and brought knowledge and facts. Great video!
Important to note that while a shock wave - by definition - travels faster than the speed of sound in that particular medium, what we see on the satellite image is not a shock wave. It's just a pressure wave and is traveling at the speed of sound. The initial explosion of the volcano, just like a nuclear detonation, did indeed launch a shock wave into the atmosphere, but shock waves dissipate and slow down rapidly as they propagate, and even by the time it reached the local islands some few tens of miles away it was certainly already a pressure wave traveling at the speed of sound and not a shock wave any longer. Also, while the total energy of this explosion was definitely greater than any nuclear detonation, the peak power was certainly not, with an H bomb reaching vastly higher powers due to the reaction taking place over a mere microsecond or so while a volcanic eruption takes millions of times longer to release its energy.
@@amzarnacht6710 um no. A shock wave is a propagating disturbance that moves faster than the speed of sound, accompanied by a discontinuous change in pressure, temperature, and density. A mere pressure wave is the opposite.
Thanks for pointing this out, particularly about the time taken to release the energy. Few videos seem to mention that the satellite images are 10 minutes apart. So what looks like a rapid explosion and expansion really took about an hour or so. Even knowing this, i still hadn't applied to directly to my perception of the energy release compared to a nuke, so i appreciate having that cleared up now. Cheers
@@coffeefish not a significant amount. To be fair, the media is playing this up a bit, I get it they have bills to pay but it's not like this was 1991 Pinatubo's eruption (that one did release a worrisome amount of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere). This is a relative phenomenon and the volcano apparently was already kind of on and off weeks prior to this. The big issue here is the need for more measurements in place in order to properly predicts these things and evacuate people with time
This is the content I wanted...handling the geological rare event (considering scale and time). Just wanted to add a little more to the human story... R.I.P. - the 3 souls that left us caught tragically during this event. Thanks for taking the time to piece this unexpected story together and tying it to this channel's theme. Well done!
One man Lisala was swept out to sea off Ataataa island (part of Tonga bt 20mins boat ride in the direction of the volcano) despite his legs being disabled he stopped answering his son's calls in fear his son would jump in looking for him. He held on to a log and made it passed two smaller islands..27hrs in the ocean he finally made it to the main island. Another 16yrs old in Haapai island ran against the direction everyone else was running n they called out to him but he was desperate to save his grandma. They said she won't make it and he said Then he'll die with her. He carried her on his back and made it higher grounds 🙏🏾🇹🇴✊🏽
The footage taken on top of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai crater are pretty impressive :O I never thought someone would have been brave enough to take a walk over there lol
It hadn't been active for a few years when that video was taken, and these were a couple of passing by explorers, so they probably just thought they'd risk it. Interestingly, the scientists weren't ever brave enough to land from what I've read.
@@astrumspace to be fair to the scientists, if I were a subject matter expert on the volcano and knew all the potential dangers in that level of detail, I'd probably be too chicken to get that close, too. 😆
For English speakers, Haʻapai is pronounced in 3 syllables, with the first two ‘a’s being pronounced as the ‘a’ in “father” (it’s important that you make the second ‘a’ its own separate syllable) and the final “pai” is pronounced like “pie” as in “apple pie”, and the stress falls on this final “eye” sound.
Thank you for your video! I still can’t believe my small island country has lived through this experience. I will definitely be showing my family this video once communication has fully recovered.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
I live in the South island of New Zealand. My friends and I thought we heard people slamming doors outside and were trying to out what was going on. Later that night we found out about the eruption and shockwave and turns out we were hearing something over 2500 kilometers away. Amazing.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
Texas had a definite pressure drop as the first wave went across the US! All last year I wondered about acid rain. I lost two trees that were over 50 years old, all flowering bushes around the deck, and a flowering tree. One other tree that suu you survived looked like leaves were burning…very weird weather that week and really up to now since this eruption.
I live in alaska, and now that I think about it, I did feel and slightly hear the shockwave. I had no clue what it was at the time, I thought that maybe something heavy had fallen over upstairs. Impressive.
I absolutely love these Astrom videos. I learned so much from your videos, and the narrator is very interesting to listen to. Please don’t stop providing us knowledge.
Thank you for making this, I've been seeing the occasional headline pop up about this eruption but nothing as spectacular as this and of course accompanied with all the researched knowledge you share with us. Astrum has very quickly become one of my fav channels.
Thank you for this! I’m so glad this came up on my recommended, I’m really interested in geography and looking closer at geographical features such as disasters like this make me interested in learning more and more.
This is really interesting, usually you talk about volcanoes on other planets or moons but now we have a conparison with something here. This also reminds me of the Krakatao eruption.
Your video impacted me twice! One because I had no idea how slim my comprehension of Volcano forces was, I always thought on the beautiful side of the situation because enrich the soils and give us more land. Two because this ovewhelming graphics and information made me see Volcano eruptions like the Popocatepetl's candle like! I can understand now pompeii. Now I fear this forces therefore I will be very, very, respectful of them. Magnificent video, your quality is top noch! Thank you for educating us about it.
What a great video. Of course I read all I could about this explosion since it was literally an Earth-shaking event but also because geology and cosmology are my favorite subjects and this was about as big an example as there has been in my lifetime. There is one superb video on Pinatubo shot by the scientists that were there monitoring the whole thing, but even that doesn't go into much detail about the effects outside the eruption area. Thank you so much for explaining the properties involved in such an explosion and the consequences thereof. As usual you give the facts in a nice calm voice without any "doom and gloom" hysterics and that alone is worth coming back to your videos for.
Great video, but the image you have shown of the land bridge (central cone above seal level) having been blown away, was actually how it appeared after the 14th January eruption, when most of that mass actually collapsed into the magma tube/chamber (some being ejected in the initial ash column). This collapse was the harbinger of the final 15th January eruption which produced the shockwave (seawater leaching into the collapsed section, initiating a very rare steam explosion event >24hrs later). As a result, the two saddle like islands are now almost gone, and there's no ash fill above sea level at all around that central cone which was totally obliterated. Hunga Ha'apai is now just a small rocky outcrop above the water. Great video though, as usual :)
I love to see stuff like this. Seeing our planet be ecologically active and changing with it's landscape is something that's hard to imagine when it usually happens slowly across millions of years but this only happened within a few years (the islands connecting into one and then the explosion happening).
The Mt Tambora event in Indonesia (5th April 1815 - 23rd April 1816) was the largest volcanic eruption recorded in human history was the most recent VEI 7 scale outpouring of magma, ash, pumice and other such material. It created the loudest noise ever recorded - apparently it could be heard 3000 miles away.
I've been fascinated by volcanoes since I was a child, and Tambora was always such an impressive monster of a volcano. Another entire island just gone, and most of the globe having "The Year Without a Summer" as a result of all that ejecta. Unreal.
@@IDiggSocialMedia Well really it's subject to debate. Back then they didn't have the advanced audio monitoring and recording equipment we take for granted today so all people could do at the time is gather witness statements and the like. Naturally that will lead to conflicting views.
@@TheInvertedFollicle507 as you said, the tech to monitor the sound didn't exist when Tambora went up, which is why the Krakatoa eruption's sound is the loudest noise ever *recorded* by humans. Not necessarily the loudest ever *experienced* by humans.
@@sabishiihitoah dumbass me OK I'll take this loss you win lol yeah you're right. I wonder which one was in fact the loudest? 🤔 🤔 🤔 Edit I may have in fact meant the loudest sound ever recorded by human ears though in all honesty I don't remember.
I have several videos and news casts on this Volcano. Your presentation is easily the most detailed, yet concise and comprehensive one! I learned a lot about this Volcano from you. Thanks!
My birthdad was Tongan so I always get worried about the Polynesian community. Especially with Tonga so when I heard about this I was terrified. Thank you so much for the amazing video
SUPERB informative video! First-time viewer and by my standarts, you stroke (Is that right? Am German) just the right balance between being informative, good presentation and capturing visuals. Instant subscription. :)
Here in Chile, we got the tsunami warning in our cell phones for all the people living in cities/towns/etc close to the ocean. Only one Island at the south got a minor tsunami but enough to destroy a bridge used by local fishermen. Also in Perú 2 people die bc of the flooding
This eruption in the long-term is probably going to be quite a significant one scientifically due to just how unusual it was. Thankfully the eruption didn't take to many lives, soon enough Tonga will recover. Great documentation btw.
I love volcanoes. I grew up living in the Taupo caldera and spent many boyhood hours exploring the many hotspots in the region as well as climbing most of the andesitic/dacitic and several rhyolitic peaks at least once. Thanks for this video!
Vulcanism on other bodies in our solar system helps me appreciate how similar they are to the one we are so familiar with and are yet still learning about!
Great vid! Thanks for identifying the correct footage of the eruptions too many here on youtube are using the smaller eruption footage for click bait of the big one
It gives you perspective on what it would be like to be in Pompei during the Mount Vesuvius eruption. Imagine being essentially right next to an eruption like that.
There was in fact a philosopher or something that in fact was in a roman military training area and witnessed the Vesuvius eruption from afar then later wrote about it in a journal of diary though I can't recall his exact name.
I can't believe the geologists working at the Volcano did not capture footage of the eruption or have any seismometers set up on the island! They really dropped the ball!
Despite seeing a number of videos on this event, this is the first to include infra-red footage of the shock-wave, so a great production! Also hope the Tongans receive the aid they desperately need without introducing Covid-19 into their communities!
Volcanic activities are the truest First Wonder of Our World... at least in my opinion. I grew up around a dormant one and all of its secrets mesmerize me.
This eruption will have an effect on ground based astronomy for a while. This was good coverage of this event. Thanks for not dumbing it down or sensationalizing it, as has been done in other videos and on TV.
1:15 I tried moving that plume/shockwave up to the middle of Denmark (...on a map scaled to same size, where it's visible). If this had happened there, my entire country would essentially have been wiped out and anything that remained, would get buried completely by ash... Nature is impressive, but terrifying...
It would be awesome if you did more videos on volcanos as you make them the easiest to understand. You actually filled in the gaps that everyone else seems to be missing, like what the island looks like now.
The largest explosions ever captured on camera,( excluding supernovas ect) was the shoemaker-levy Comet slamming into Jupiter. Each Explosion was 1 - 3 times the size of Earth!
@@DLWELD that would have been awesome to see! I only got to view it on television through Hubble. I recall some scientists say that if Jupiter wouldn't have been there, Shoemaker-levy would have possibly hit Earth. I don't know if that was true or not? But, there were a lot of scientist saying that at the time. A planet destroyer! There was another planet destroyer that entered our solar system around 2003. I never heard anything about this on any news Outlet. I don't remember the name? I will post this, look it up & then get back on here with it. I found it! Imma posted on the comment down below.👇
This is becoming a trend. While not the first to report things, UA-camrs are often doing much better reports than actual news media. This gave me a far better idea of what's going on than anything I saw in the news, and there are other channels out there doing similar quality work on other topics, such as Caspian Report for political matters.
The first sentence ruins the message... it's not becoming a trend... it's been that way almost the whole time youtube has existed.
It's not becoming a trend, where have you been since 2010?
News is not news anymore.
@@thisguyy You mean Mainstream Media news?
@@fgb3126 yes, i suppose i should have been more elaborate.
Thank you Alex for covering this eruption.
I’m a volcanologist and this video is one of the best presentations I’ve seen.
Even though the boring tables and numbers are left out for general public, there’s still a lot of in depth information.
It's a complete Re-telling of what Scott Manley posted... A WEEK AGO. WHEN IT HAPPENED. Check out his review. More Science too.
@@glytchd What if, they where just telling the same story, with the same source material and made a similar video about it, but in their respective style.
It could just be a coincidence
@@glytchd Did you know more than one historian wrote about the Civil War? It's true!
@@mr.boomguy Except this video has errors that Scott Manley didn't make. So, it's later and less accurate.
So question: I noticed along with the rest of the world the wave being pushed NW to SE, was that because of the angle of the eruption? In other words, is it known, if this was a somewhat lateral eruption like Mt. St. Helens?
I always remember learning just how awful volcanic ash is to your lungs, it has a similar composition to cement in powdered form, when it's breathed in it reacts with the fluids in your lungs turning it into a version of concrete, you would drown in cement as your lungs collapse, so if you find yourself in the position of watching volcanic ash falling around you, go inside
Yeah it's also VERY heavy for it's size and even just an inch of it on a roof can cause a collapse so be careful to stay under a supported area and cover your mouth with something just in case.
Pneumonoultramiscroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the term for it
But if you close your eyes
@@samaiello7543 Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all
@@theinconceivablerat 😰
According to my experiendce from eruptions in my country, Iceland, the vegetation recovers incredibly fast after being covered in volcanic ash. It is actually incredible. I hope this will be the case in the Tonga islands.
The Mt Ruapehu eruption in New Zealand has been really good for growing carrots.
To add on, burning farm land and spreading ash has been a practice used by many farming communities known as slash and burn. It makes a field called a swidden for a few months or years but eventually it grows back because the ash from burned trees and plants gives tons of nutrients to the soil. It allows for better grow seasons and helps negate the need for GMO’s. I hope tonga has a strong recovery from this
Earth guts
It's the people I'm worried about
That's the case after Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991. After all that devastation, the lahar actually fertilized the lands surrounding the volcano and vegetation recovered pretty quickly.
We heard the eruptions as loud booms. We live in Fiji 800 km away. You could feel it in the ground, the house, in the air, and through your body. It was amazing for us but sad for our Tongan neighbors.
I totally get what you mean. It's incredible to experience it from afar. I live in California and went to school with many Tongans and they were terrified because they couldn't get ahold of their families. When you care about your friends, you feel almost as helpless as they do and it was heartbreaking for those few days when there was no communication from the island. It's like holding your breath. 😔 But I still have to admire nature's power.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
Didn't he say Tonga was inhabited?
@@borderline_sunshine yes it is inhabited, that particular island with the volcano is not.
@@andrewlawrence8490 you should look into antipsychotics, they'll probably help you. Your brain and your thinking is polluted.
You do realize that "white object" you're talking about is many many miles wide, right? And that it is a cloud? Obviously you don't realize that, because you're the opposite of smart.
Omg as a Tongan today marks a year since that erruption and thankful God we are still alive ❤ and the thunder like sound I will never forget my ears had still had effect like ringing for two days
This is *by far* the best & most comprehensive coverage I've seen on this event. Excellent work, Alex. Seriously
It's a complete Re-telling of what Scott Manley posted... A WEEK AGO. WHEN IT HAPPENED. Check out his review. when everyone else was just posting 10 second clips on loop and speculating.. THis feels like a rip with a bit of boot polish.
It's not really, there's some inaccuracies in this video. The picture of the volcanic island spit in two is wrong, that's actually a photo before the big eruption. The photo shows were the middle part of the island slipped into the sea, a caldera collapse (caldera is pronounced wrong in the video), which was a catalyst for the massive volcanic eruption that followed (a plinian eruption).
Geology hub gives a more detailed and better explanation of things without saying anything misleading
@@jazzyb4656 yeah I don't think that changes much
I dunno man. He downplayed the very serious tsunami's. They've destroyed housing, damaged ports, fresh water supplies, sewer systems AND the cause of death. Strange information to overlook.
It’s always incredible to see such powerful shockwaves, seeing the clouds disappear as it spread out shows just how much pressure was behind it.
same as a nuclear shockwave 🤔
@@djsweb No not the same these are about 10x more powerful
@@djsweb nah, so many people are saying it may be new weapons lol
Have you ever wondered why the satellite camera had its crosshairs pointed right at the epicentre prior to the recorded “explosion”. This was a bomb. Multiple sleuths around the world have satellite footage and have zoomed in, slowed down, and confirmed, an incoming tic tack like object. Come into frame, creating an ocean splash just above the “explosion”. I believe the Chinese were ironically weapons testing that day. And / or is someone trying to purposefully break the tectonic plates near the west coast of North America !!?? 🌎😡
@@kevinparkernde I can only assume it was either convenient placement based on how many satellites are orbiting earth or there might have been some pre warning signs that there might be some activity.
For anyone who’s told to stay indoors as ash falls, friggin’ do it. That ash could likely contain microscopic shards of silica, which cause horrible respiratory symptoms including bleeding from the lungs.
isnt that what pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is? longest word supposedly
Silicosis its a serious issue. NO HOUSE is actually sealed up ash will 10000% come inside into ur lungs giving u COPD from silica inhalation
@@togepipokearts4504 yes but that word applies to things like shattered glass or anything Sharp and small enough to enter your lungs
Or those bacterium that eat iron they just discovered
I've heard of ash being so heavy it can cave in rooftops...
Earth is also a planet, I have no problem with you covering the Tonga event.
Big if true
Beat me to it. Volcanoes are an astronomical phenomenon after all.
Lol, oh yeah!!
Earth is my favourite planet as it happens.
Never thought about it 🤔
I heard the explosive eruption here in New Zealand (upper North Island, east coast), and it was very loud, considering how far away it was. To me, it sounded like someone had dropped a couple of fully loaded dumpsters on the road in front of my house, despite me being way down the back of the house, which is quite large, and made from concrete and brick. It would have been interesting to have been outside when the shockwaves passed over!
Thanks for sharing your story! Amazing!
Here in California we heard a sonic boom!
@@autumnjones5060 no way
Heard it as well bro and you just perfectly described what I heard. It was so loud I looked out the window expecting to see a huge wreck.
@@autumnjones5060 pretty sure he already said there was no noise in mainland USA...
I didn't realize the scale of this eruption up until now. It's a major event in human documented history
The effects in the surrounding land and marine life will be seen for ages
Its difficult to understand how powerful volcano erruptions really are and yet its so amazing to see.
it,s called nature event what,s happens all the time ... big blast but no worry,s
@@jessienameles5063 super volcano are built different
@@ee2376 I know 'ALL THE TIME', what an idiot Jessie who should stay nameless
@@jessienameles5063 Volcanoes have ended parts of Civilization before and millions of years ago caused great damage to the world's life.
@@taelorpickel2830 people to, we are in it right now!!!!!!!!!!!
I know you only mentionned this as an ad, but for whom might be interested.
The Santiaguito in Guatemala is one of the top 10 most dangerous volcanoes on Earth. It has, as you mentionned, only existed for a little more than 100 years. The breathtaking view you mentionned was taken from the Santa María, the volcano that was the main one. Its lava was very viscuous and dried quickly, which closed its crater down pretty deep. Upon an eruption, a hole was opened next to the Santa María: the Santiaguito was born in an overwhelming, destructive eruption. It shattered the Santa María's flank; the damages are still evident to this day. The Santiaguito kept growing up since then, being almost always active. If you ever go to Guatemala, and wander around Retalulehu, Mazatengo or Quetzaltenango, you might see the couple volcanoes: a big, broken one, and a small, active one.
My thoughts go to the victims of the Tonga volcano.
I was in Guatemala in 2013 and I only found out about their volcanos once I was home and it bummed me out that I didn't get to see it. Although, we did go to a resort town on the edge of a crater and there's islands in the middle where people live and work. That in itself was cool but it's not like seeing an active volcano.
6:10 I find this picture amazing. It shows how countries and landmass are born, and how water seems to immediately settle the barren island with green life. Just beautiful
This isnt how islands are born. This is how they die. If this explosion hadnt happened, THEN it would have been how land is made. This was pure destruction
Prayers out to the people of Tonga! Hope they recover from this and come back stronger! Peace to my Polynesian people affected by this volcanic eruption!
What little news we have seen so far indicates that they have responded very well, with good evacuations. I hope the rest of the world helps them to make a quick recovery, and that the families of the 3 people we know to have died so far find peace.
@@bimblinghill That's very sad, my heart and prayers 🙏🏼 to the friends and families you've lost! Jah bless everyone
Much love, respect and prayers to the Polynesian people 🙏. I'm way over here in Tucson, Arizona but enjoy every night the fruits of there hard work, in particular Kava Kava 😋.
My most favorite is the type from the island of Vanuatu and Fiji👌.
We are fortunate enough to have vendors that import direct from those regions and know that is their number one staple export 🇹🇴🙏
Malo e lelei, and ofa atu. Much love and prayers to the kingdom of Tonga 😞🙏. No one is a strong believer in the gospel and Jesus Christ than the people of Tonga. Like the Phoenix, they shall rise from the ash and rebuild.
They got hit by an earthquake today :( I cant imagine what it’s been like for these poor people
We live on the coast of Northern California and heard the explosion Friday night. Thought it was a sonic boom at first. But once the tsunami watch for the west coast if the US went into effect, and we found out why, we realized the double boom we'd heard was actually the shock wave from the Hunga Tonga Hunga Haapai explosion.
San Diego, think I heard it but chalked it up to general city noise.
I didn’t hear it, but we got the tsunami in Santa Cruz.
I don't think I heard it here in SoCal. Probably the stupid traffic sounds muffled it :/
@@pinecone189 same lol
Now you guys have me double guessing if I did hear it or not. We hear so many sonic booms from Edwards AFB that I don't register it anymore. I still say I didn't hear it but, you can't go back in time to know for sure. 😔😅
Hi I'm from Tonga, all my 28 years of life I have never been more terrified, unfortunately I did not have time to video the eruption but thanks for this, 15th of Jan 2022, a day will we never forget
4:42 whoever put all that data together and animate those shock waves across Japan and the US deserves a pat on the back.
Definitely the best video on this volcano so far. I actually heard and felt the Shockwave from my house in Waikato, New Zealand. It sounded like a fireworks display in the distance and we could feel the pressure changes in our ears. I can only imagine how loud it was for the people of Tonga.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
@@andrewlawrence8490 no it's not dude. Way more REAL conspiracies to be obsessive over in these times.
The ground goes boom sometimes
Amazing how a single volcanic event can impact our environment more in a short time than hundreds of years of human activity.
Less than a year
Great coverage Alex, far more in depth than most sources regarding this event.
I really liked Scott Manley's video on the topic and it's still the best I've seen so far.
But I also like how Alex imposed the ash cloud on Europe for scale.
@@SteveJB Scott's a fellow Scot, so I have a soft spot lol, but I have seen a few on other channels that are just lacking in details like Alex and Scott included. Anton Petrov did a decent job, but I think he may have kinda rushed it to get it out and missed key items like the 2014 eruption and it's implications.
Geology Hub also has been covering this in pretty good detail. Though I admit that he has a rather monotone delivery.
Scott Manley, geologyhub and Anton Petrov all did a great job. So happy to see astrum covering it too
It’s amazing that what can be so deadly can also have beauty. The eruption looks to me like a blossoming flower.
This is my homeland and have close relations living in Tonga. Thank you for this video, one of the best I've seen.
Just recently discovered these videos, and instantly grown fond of the high level of knowledge shared, the way they are made and the narration. Thanks a million!!
The way you explained the whole eruption process is so satisfying to listen to.
All the news media wants to do is frighten you and make you feel helpless. You actually opened a discussion and brought knowledge and facts. Great video!
Manipulation victim
Important to note that while a shock wave - by definition - travels faster than the speed of sound in that particular medium, what we see on the satellite image is not a shock wave. It's just a pressure wave and is traveling at the speed of sound. The initial explosion of the volcano, just like a nuclear detonation, did indeed launch a shock wave into the atmosphere, but shock waves dissipate and slow down rapidly as they propagate, and even by the time it reached the local islands some few tens of miles away it was certainly already a pressure wave traveling at the speed of sound and not a shock wave any longer. Also, while the total energy of this explosion was definitely greater than any nuclear detonation, the peak power was certainly not, with an H bomb reaching vastly higher powers due to the reaction taking place over a mere microsecond or so while a volcanic eruption takes millions of times longer to release its energy.
How much CO2 was released?
What is a shockwave?
It's a wave of pressure...
@@amzarnacht6710 um no. A shock wave is a propagating disturbance that moves faster than the speed of sound, accompanied by a discontinuous change in pressure, temperature, and density. A mere pressure wave is the opposite.
Thanks for pointing this out, particularly about the time taken to release the energy. Few videos seem to mention that the satellite images are 10 minutes apart. So what looks like a rapid explosion and expansion really took about an hour or so. Even knowing this, i still hadn't applied to directly to my perception of the energy release compared to a nuke, so i appreciate having that cleared up now. Cheers
@@coffeefish not a significant amount. To be fair, the media is playing this up a bit, I get it they have bills to pay but it's not like this was 1991 Pinatubo's eruption (that one did release a worrisome amount of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere). This is a relative phenomenon and the volcano apparently was already kind of on and off weeks prior to this. The big issue here is the need for more measurements in place in order to properly predicts these things and evacuate people with time
This channel is content gold.
Facts
My favourite part is when they put the sources. Many of the content here was posted on Twitter by scientists, experts, journalists and local people.
I like how we see this stuff on social media before the actual news talks about it
This is the content I wanted...handling the geological rare event (considering scale and time).
Just wanted to add a little more to the human story...
R.I.P. - the 3 souls that left us caught tragically during this event.
Thanks for taking the time to piece this unexpected story together and tying it to this channel's theme. Well done!
Possibly 5
3 in Tonga, 2 in Peru
One man Lisala was swept out to sea off Ataataa island (part of Tonga bt 20mins boat ride in the direction of the volcano) despite his legs being disabled he stopped answering his son's calls in fear his son would jump in looking for him. He held on to a log and made it passed two smaller islands..27hrs in the ocean he finally made it to the main island. Another 16yrs old in Haapai island ran against the direction everyone else was running n they called out to him but he was desperate to save his grandma. They said she won't make it and he said Then he'll die with her. He carried her on his back and made it higher grounds 🙏🏾🇹🇴✊🏽
@@Makatoa07 great human stories. Thanks for sharing!
I think its going to be a lot more, I hate to say it. That ash cloud was the size of England.
The footage taken on top of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai crater are pretty impressive :O
I never thought someone would have been brave enough to take a walk over there lol
It hadn't been active for a few years when that video was taken, and these were a couple of passing by explorers, so they probably just thought they'd risk it. Interestingly, the scientists weren't ever brave enough to land from what I've read.
@@astrumspace to be fair to the scientists, if I were a subject matter expert on the volcano and knew all the potential dangers in that level of detail, I'd probably be too chicken to get that close, too. 😆
I don't usually watch science videos in one go but this one is top notch.
Agreed
For English speakers, Haʻapai is pronounced in 3 syllables, with the first two ‘a’s being pronounced as the ‘a’ in “father” (it’s important that you make the second ‘a’ its own separate syllable) and the final “pai” is pronounced like “pie” as in “apple pie”, and the stress falls on this final “eye” sound.
Thank you for this!!!
Thank you for your video! I still can’t believe my small island country has lived through this experience. I will definitely be showing my family this video once communication has fully recovered.
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
I'm here for years now and man you always amaze me with each new video.
I live in the South island of New Zealand. My friends and I thought we heard people slamming doors outside and were trying to out what was going on. Later that night we found out about the eruption and shockwave and turns out we were hearing something over 2500 kilometers away. Amazing.
Liar!
@@mrman3196 🤔
Look into 56-59 seconds! A white object dropped into the ocean and splashed, moved from right to left under the water for 1-2 seconds, then the white object exploded. This one is not a natural volcano explosion, but an A-bome from mato and the evils behind.
@@mrman3196 kefe lol
@@mrman3196 No. That is very possible. You're just jealous.
Thank you for sharing the deeper side of these stories that everyone hears about, but only knows a little of.
I try :)
Texas had a definite pressure drop as the first wave went across the US! All last year I wondered about acid rain. I lost two trees that were over 50 years old, all flowering bushes around the deck, and a flowering tree. One other tree that suu you survived looked like leaves were burning…very weird weather that week and really up to now since this eruption.
I was waiting for this one 😁
Edit: Thanks for the Magellan link btw. Definitely in the mood to cozy up and watch a few documentaries
I live in alaska, and now that I think about it, I did feel and slightly hear the shockwave.
I had no clue what it was at the time, I thought that maybe something heavy had fallen over upstairs.
Impressive.
I got to climb acatenango in Guatemala back in February. Watching fuego pop off every few minutes has a hypnotizing effect
I absolutely love these Astrom videos. I learned so much from your videos, and the narrator is very interesting to listen to. Please don’t stop providing us knowledge.
Thanks for this excellent video. Much more informative than anything I’ve seen on the news in Australia!
Lived in Xela for about a year and loved seeing that little volcano spewing ash everyday. It was always a cool sight to see.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video and posting on UA-cam. Interesting and educational. Very well done.
Thank you for making this, I've been seeing the occasional headline pop up about this eruption but nothing as spectacular as this and of course accompanied with all the researched knowledge you share with us. Astrum has very quickly become one of my fav channels.
Thank you for this!
I’m so glad this came up on my recommended, I’m really interested in geography and looking closer at geographical features such as disasters like this make me interested in learning more and more.
This is really interesting, usually you talk about volcanoes on other planets or moons but now we have a conparison with something here. This also reminds me of the Krakatao eruption.
Glad you found a way to overlay with Europe. I was struggling to get a sense of scale from the videos without that
Wow the success of this vid has taken off! Congrats dood, you deserve it
Everything done on this channel is top notch.. That was the best coverage and summation of this event that I’ve seen so far.. very well done 👍
Agreed.
That's the most informative vid I've seen about the Tonga eruption. Great job Astrum.
Great video! Very informative and interesting 🙂.Im from Tonga and this was an experience I would never forget.
Your video impacted me twice! One because I had no idea how slim my comprehension of Volcano forces was, I always thought on the beautiful side of the situation because enrich the soils and give us more land. Two because this ovewhelming graphics and information made me see Volcano eruptions like the Popocatepetl's candle like! I can understand now pompeii. Now I fear this forces therefore I will be very, very, respectful of them. Magnificent video, your quality is top noch! Thank you for educating us about it.
Best video I’ve seen on the topic. Amazing production quality
I feel like from this video this was a much bigger deal than the media played it out to be. Thanks for this.
What a great video. Of course I read all I could about this explosion since it was literally an Earth-shaking event but also because geology and cosmology are my favorite subjects and this was about as big an example as there has been in my lifetime. There is one superb video on Pinatubo shot by the scientists that were there monitoring the whole thing, but even that doesn't go into much detail about the effects outside the eruption area. Thank you so much for explaining the properties involved in such an explosion and the consequences thereof. As usual you give the facts in a nice calm voice without any "doom and gloom" hysterics and that alone is worth coming back to your videos for.
Great video, thanks for such an informative narration and for collating some fascinating imagery.
I love watching different people with this kind of information, bc some explain more than others, in one way or another
Great video, but the image you have shown of the land bridge (central cone above seal level) having been blown away, was actually how it appeared after the 14th January eruption, when most of that mass actually collapsed into the magma tube/chamber (some being ejected in the initial ash column). This collapse was the harbinger of the final 15th January eruption which produced the shockwave (seawater leaching into the collapsed section, initiating a very rare steam explosion event >24hrs later). As a result, the two saddle like islands are now almost gone, and there's no ash fill above sea level at all around that central cone which was totally obliterated. Hunga Ha'apai is now just a small rocky outcrop above the water.
Great video though, as usual :)
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing, my friend!
Seeing the Soundwave moving across the planet in infrared was so cool.
This was really interesting to watch! Thanks for making this small documentary!
I love to see stuff like this. Seeing our planet be ecologically active and changing with it's landscape is something that's hard to imagine when it usually happens slowly across millions of years but this only happened within a few years (the islands connecting into one and then the explosion happening).
I'm very glad you couldn't pass up the opportunity to cover this information.
The Mt Tambora event in Indonesia (5th April 1815 - 23rd April 1816) was the largest volcanic eruption recorded in human history was the most recent VEI 7 scale outpouring of magma, ash, pumice and other such material. It created the loudest noise ever recorded - apparently it could be heard 3000 miles away.
I've been fascinated by volcanoes since I was a child, and Tambora was always such an impressive monster of a volcano. Another entire island just gone, and most of the globe having "The Year Without a Summer" as a result of all that ejecta. Unreal.
Krakatoa in 1883 made the loudest noise ever recorded!
@@IDiggSocialMedia
Well really it's subject to debate. Back then they didn't have the advanced audio monitoring and recording equipment we take for granted today so all people could do at the time is gather witness statements and the like. Naturally that will lead to conflicting views.
@@TheInvertedFollicle507 as you said, the tech to monitor the sound didn't exist when Tambora went up, which is why the Krakatoa eruption's sound is the loudest noise ever *recorded* by humans. Not necessarily the loudest ever *experienced* by humans.
@@sabishiihitoah dumbass me OK I'll take this loss you win lol yeah you're right. I wonder which one was in fact the loudest? 🤔 🤔 🤔
Edit I may have in fact meant the loudest sound ever recorded by human ears though in all honesty I don't remember.
Pretty sweet video again! Really well done and like how you showed comparison as how big that closed was compared to Europe. Really show perspective
I remember when Mt. Pinatubo erupted, it dropped global temperatures by 1F. This gave the US a cool Summer in 1992.
I have several videos and news casts on this Volcano. Your presentation is easily the most detailed, yet concise and comprehensive one! I learned a lot about this Volcano from you. Thanks!
Finally found the data I was looking for in this. Thanks for the great and informative video.
Mother nature always has her ways of reminding us, that we're so small on this planet.
Amazing work, Alex! They heard the boom in the middle of Norway too. Greetings from Oslo, Norway.
On the coast?
@@KoriEmerson yes on the coast
I'm Tongatapu lived in Auckland was heard from South Island 3000km🤔
My birthdad was Tongan so I always get worried about the Polynesian community. Especially with Tonga so when I heard about this I was terrified. Thank you so much for the amazing video
SUPERB informative video!
First-time viewer and by my standarts, you stroke (Is that right? Am German) just the right balance between being informative, good presentation and capturing visuals.
Instant subscription. :)
Here in Chile, we got the tsunami warning in our cell phones for all the people living in cities/towns/etc close to the ocean. Only one Island at the south got a minor tsunami but enough to destroy a bridge used by local fishermen. Also in Perú 2 people die bc of the flooding
This eruption in the long-term is probably going to be quite a significant one scientifically due to just how unusual it was. Thankfully the eruption didn't take to many lives, soon enough Tonga will recover. Great documentation btw.
I love volcanoes. I grew up living in the Taupo caldera and spent many boyhood hours exploring the many hotspots in the region as well as climbing most of the andesitic/dacitic and several rhyolitic peaks at least once. Thanks for this video!
An excellent presentation Alex. Keep up the good work! Astrum never fails to provide interesting videos. Thanks.
Vulcanism on other bodies in our solar system helps me appreciate how similar they are to the one we are so familiar with and are yet still learning about!
Just bought "Fire and Ice" by Natalie Starkey about volcanoes in the solar system.
We live in the islands of Fiji, the eruption can be heard from where we live, and with that, we faced tsunami's.
Great vid! Thanks for identifying the correct footage of the eruptions too many here on youtube are using the smaller eruption footage for click bait of the big one
Thank you for explaining the effect it will have in the future, none of the other videos i've watched really covered it
Thank you for this video. As of today, communications has been repaired and back to normal. Love from Tonga 🇹🇴
It gives you perspective on what it would be like to be in Pompei during the Mount Vesuvius eruption. Imagine being essentially right next to an eruption like that.
There was in fact a philosopher or something that in fact was in a roman military training area and witnessed the Vesuvius eruption from afar then later wrote about it in a journal of diary though I can't recall his exact name.
I can't believe the geologists working at the Volcano did not capture footage of the eruption or have any seismometers set up on the island! They really dropped the ball!
I loved you overlapping it over Europe - it gave you the perspective!
Despite seeing a number of videos on this event, this is the first to include infra-red footage of the shock-wave, so a great production!
Also hope the Tongans receive the aid they desperately need without introducing Covid-19 into their communities!
Volcanic activities are the truest First Wonder of Our World... at least in my opinion. I grew up around a dormant one and all of its secrets mesmerize me.
It's like Earth squeezing a spot.
Edit: on a more sensible note, that was a great video, really informative from a good narrator.
This eruption will have an effect on ground based astronomy for a while. This was good coverage of this event. Thanks for not dumbing it down or sensationalizing it, as has been done in other videos and on TV.
I just can't believe that an identical volcano erupted in Luxemburg at exactly the same time. That's a rare coincidence to witness in one's lifetime.
What an *excellent* little documentary. And terrific graphics as well! Especially liked the 'water on Mars' simulation. Thx so much for doing this.
Great video! While the Tsunami in most areas were relatively small, a 15 meter (almost 50ft) tsunami did hit parts of Tonga
Perfect content , as usual, Alex
A far better report than the media did. Excellent. Keep it up.
1:15 I tried moving that plume/shockwave up to the middle of Denmark (...on a map scaled to same size, where it's visible). If this had happened there, my entire country would essentially have been wiped out and anything that remained, would get buried completely by ash... Nature is impressive, but terrifying...
It would be awesome if you did more videos on volcanos as you make them the easiest to understand. You actually filled in the gaps that everyone else seems to be missing, like what the island looks like now.
I agree, though on a sister channel to Astrum, maybe under the name Gia or Gaia?
If you'd like a channel that does very good volcano videos, I recommend geology hub :)
@@robinsea already there lol. Thanks though!
Fascinating force of nature. The planet that lets life bloom on it is also very much alive itself.
The largest explosions ever captured on camera,( excluding supernovas ect) was the shoemaker-levy Comet slamming into Jupiter. Each Explosion was 1 - 3 times the size of Earth!
I recall seeing the "scars" of that explosion with my 13 inch telescope.
@@DLWELD that would have been awesome to see!
I only got to view it on television through Hubble. I recall some scientists say that if Jupiter wouldn't have been there, Shoemaker-levy would have possibly hit Earth. I don't know if that was true or not? But, there were a lot of scientist saying that at the time.
A planet destroyer!
There was another planet destroyer that entered our solar system around 2003. I never heard anything about this on any news Outlet. I don't remember the name? I will post this, look it up & then get back on here with it.
I found it!
Imma posted on the comment down below.👇
Can't compare Earth and Jupiter but very interesting comments