The submarine volcano that erupted in the remote SW Pacific on January 15th created a tsunami that crashed into the island nation of Tonga was heard in 5,000 miles away in Alaska and sent atmospheric pressure waves detected around the world. in a few words, it was a mighty blast that
could be seen from space. Trite expressions aside, the volcano sent a plume of ash that ascended 36 miles into the mesosphere, a new record. The mesosphere is beyond our familiar troposphere where weather occurs, and the stratosphere, the realm of high-flying jets and baloons. That's three times higher than most thunderstorms and 14 miles taller than previous volcanic eruptions.
Scientists were able to measure the plume of smoke, particles and steam using two geosynchronous sattelites, GEOS-17 and Himawari-8. [photo]Using the collected data, scientists created a three-dimensional model of the record plume. The plume sparked significant lightening strikes--200,00 in just one hour--covering a staggering 60,000 square miles or the area of the state of Georgia. The effects of the mighty blast are still being studied, but scientists think that not enough sulfur dixoide was released to cool the Earth's climate.
