1 00:00:01,230 --> 00:00:06,180 On January 15 2022, the uninhabited volcanic island 2 00:00:06,210 --> 00:00:09,870 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai erupted violently, creating 3 00:00:09,870 --> 00:00:14,220 worldwide shockwaves, sonic booms, tsunamis and powerful 4 00:00:14,220 --> 00:00:16,980 winds all while blanketing surrounding islands and two 5 00:00:16,980 --> 00:00:21,870 centimeters of ash. It was a fatal eruption, and its impact 6 00:00:21,870 --> 00:00:24,810 on nearby communities was further compounded by the 7 00:00:24,810 --> 00:00:29,790 disruption caused to emergency services. NASA has been 8 00:00:29,790 --> 00:00:33,240 following the Pacific Islands unusual evolution for years. 9 00:00:33,330 --> 00:00:36,600 Using historical observations and satellite data of the 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,930 January eruption, scientists have shed a new light on why 11 00:00:39,930 --> 00:00:43,470 this explosion is so unique and how such a small island is 12 00:00:43,470 --> 00:00:45,900 making such a huge impact across the planet. 13 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,360 It gave us a window into a rapid paced life history of an island 14 00:00:51,510 --> 00:00:54,750 that we can compare to hundreds of other islands in the oceans 15 00:00:54,900 --> 00:00:58,500 over time. And these islands are sensitive indicators for the 16 00:00:58,500 --> 00:01:01,410 activities of climate environmental change, and we can 17 00:01:01,410 --> 00:01:04,620 project them forward even to other planets. So what an 18 00:01:04,620 --> 00:01:05,340 opportunity 19 00:01:06,570 --> 00:01:09,810 geologic record suggests that while the volcano may have 20 00:01:09,810 --> 00:01:13,530 produced massive explosive eruptions in the past, eruption 21 00:01:13,530 --> 00:01:16,170 of this magnitude wasn't expected so soon. 22 00:01:16,870 --> 00:01:20,650 This was what we call a volcanic explosivity index six eruption, 23 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:24,970 nothing like it's it's Krakataua in the 19th century. And so what 24 00:01:24,970 --> 00:01:28,600 happened was this beautiful little island 100 meters tall, 25 00:01:28,690 --> 00:01:33,010 growing forming, by the nature of the way volcanoes and in 26 00:01:33,010 --> 00:01:38,380 water interact, was explosively changed forever. And literally, 27 00:01:38,380 --> 00:01:43,390 the entire base of the volcano fell hundreds of meters in to a 28 00:01:43,390 --> 00:01:47,980 shallow magma reservoir of liquid rock chamber, literally 29 00:01:48,010 --> 00:01:51,280 under the ocean, and then allowed the explosive 30 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,240 interaction of a massive Pacific Ocean seawater with this hot 31 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,650 rock 1300 degrees Kelvin. That's super hot, hotter than your 32 00:01:59,650 --> 00:02:03,640 oven. And that explosion with the pressure move the water, the 33 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,270 rock, the small amounts of ash that were part of building the 34 00:02:07,270 --> 00:02:10,300 island, all the way into the atmosphere and triggered a large 35 00:02:10,300 --> 00:02:14,680 tsunami, a 15 meter high super wave that traveled out hundreds 36 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,430 of miles, buried some local islands as part of the Tonga 37 00:02:18,460 --> 00:02:21,790 archipelago, but allowed us to see the power of mother nature's 38 00:02:21,790 --> 00:02:26,530 volcanoes. When water and liquid rock come together to shape our 39 00:02:26,530 --> 00:02:26,950 planet. 40 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:32,800 NASA and ESA satellites clocked wind speeds up to 450 miles per 41 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,250 hour, just hours after the eruption in showed material 42 00:02:36,250 --> 00:02:40,150 rising up to 36 miles, the highest volcanic plume ever 43 00:02:40,150 --> 00:02:44,320 measured. Within two weeks, the main plume of volcanic materials 44 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,440 circled the entire globe injecting dust particles into 45 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,640 the stratosphere that remain for upwards of a year. NASA also 46 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:54,610 found that the volcano injected a tremendous amount of water 47 00:02:54,610 --> 00:02:57,340 vapor into the Earth's stratosphere. The increase of 48 00:02:57,340 --> 00:03:00,670 water vapor which traps heat could modify atmospheric 49 00:03:00,670 --> 00:03:03,790 chemistry and have a warming effect on the Earth's surface. 50 00:03:06,610 --> 00:03:09,460 So outside of its sheer magnitude, what makes this 51 00:03:09,460 --> 00:03:13,000 eruption so unique? Well, it's really a matter of our ability 52 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,440 to see it. At the end of 2021, the islands volcanic activity 53 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:21,130 started picking up small underwater eruptions began to 54 00:03:21,130 --> 00:03:24,850 reshape the islands landscape expanding the island. These 55 00:03:24,850 --> 00:03:27,370 shallow water events are classified as cert saying 56 00:03:27,370 --> 00:03:30,820 eruptions were hot magma interacts explosively with 57 00:03:30,820 --> 00:03:34,960 water. In other words, we've been able to see the birth of 58 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,380 the island happen in ways we haven't been able to before. And 59 00:03:38,380 --> 00:03:41,530 with modern satellite technology, we're also able to 60 00:03:41,530 --> 00:03:45,130 see the end of the islands lifecycle in new detail, as we 61 00:03:45,130 --> 00:03:46,780 did with the January eruption. 62 00:03:47,470 --> 00:03:50,170 This has happened in Earth's history in famous places like 63 00:03:50,170 --> 00:03:54,760 Yellowstone Taupo New Zealand, Krakatoa. And now in the island 64 00:03:54,790 --> 00:03:58,750 nation of Tonga, it's a we have an opportunity 21st century 65 00:03:58,750 --> 00:04:02,530 techniques, laser altimeters like ICESat, two satellite 66 00:04:02,530 --> 00:04:05,650 techniques that can see its scales of submitter put those 67 00:04:05,650 --> 00:04:09,520 together and tell a story of the birth and death of this island. 68 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:12,330 NASA's vantage point of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai could even 69 00:04:12,330 --> 00:04:13,470 be used as a means to study other planets in our solar 70 00:04:13,470 --> 00:04:14,790 system, specifically, the role that volcanic islands play in 71 00:04:14,790 --> 00:04:15,570 water planets like Mars and Venus. 72 00:04:15,570 --> 00:04:27,240 We live on an ocean planet. And so these kinds of eruptions are 73 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:31,620 part of our history, how we got here, as we evolved ourselves in 74 00:04:31,620 --> 00:04:34,710 the context of our planet. And we want to take the lessons that 75 00:04:34,710 --> 00:04:38,430 we learn as we go forward as we continue to watch what's next in 76 00:04:38,430 --> 00:04:41,730 this exciting volcano, and apply it forward to other worlds like 77 00:04:41,730 --> 00:04:45,750 Mars and Venus that may have harbored surface waters as 78 00:04:45,780 --> 00:04:49,800 oceans or seas and understand them in the context of our 79 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:50,130 Earth. 80 00:04:50,850 --> 00:04:54,450 Using geostationary satellites and observed data, NASA 81 00:04:54,450 --> 00:04:57,540 scientists hope to learn from the continuous evolution of this 82 00:04:57,540 --> 00:04:58,380 special volcano. 83 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:02,980 The question is Will those come again on Hunga Tonga and then 84 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,540 explode again? We don't know. So we need to use what we saw from 85 00:05:07,540 --> 00:05:11,740 this eruption in 22. To train ourselves for what to be able to 86 00:05:11,740 --> 00:05:16,540 predict. And so this is our chance to learn and then to 87 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:19,780 apply it to the other ocean worlds nearby that we really 88 00:05:19,780 --> 00:05:20,650 hunger to study.