According to the Pacific nation’s geological service, which has warned mariners to keep their distance, a volcano north of Tonga’s main island has erupted eight times in the last 48 hours.
Tonga’s Home Reef
The Home Reef volcano has erupted over the past ten days, oozing molten lava and shooting steam and ash at least two miles into the air, with six eruptions recorded in the last 24 hours alone. On Tuesday, The Tonga Geological Services at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources said that Home Reef’s eruption as of now poses a low risk to “residents of Vava’u and Ha’apai”- two most populated islands.
The Geological service said in a statement that pilots have been warned to use caution when flying through airspace near the volcano after the aviation alert level was raised one step below an emergency.
To look out for falling ash, mariners have also been warned to not sail closer than 4km from Home Reef.
The geological service said that the monitoring of the eruption of Home Reef is still going on with daily notices on its status.
Seismic activity is common around Tonga, a small archipelago nation with approximately 100,000 people spread across 171 islands. However, on Tuesday the warning levels were raised by one notch as the pace of eruptions fastened at Home Reef.
In the month of January this year, Tonga was rocked by the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, which was, according to the researchers at the University of Bath, one of the most powerful of modern times.
According to local aid workers, the blast felt like an atomic bomb, created a tsunami of 15-metre, killing three people, destroying villages and cutting communication tables, leaving the country cut off from the world for weeks.
Read More: https://tdznkwjt9mxt6p1p8657.cleaver.live/eastern-taiwan-suffered-an-earthquake/
