Diverse tsunamigenesis triggered by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption

Patrick Lynett; Maile McCann; Zili Zhou; Willington Renteria; Jose Borrero; Dougal Greer; 'Ofa Fa'anunu; Cyprien Bosserelle; Bruce E. Jaffe; SeanPaul La Selle; Andrew C. Ritchie; Alexander G. Snyder; Brandon Nasr; Jaqueline Bott; Nicholas A Graehl; Costas Synolakis; Behzad Ebrahimi; Ezgi Cinar

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05170-6

Diverse tsunamigenesis triggered by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption

Nature

By: Patrick Lynett, Maile McCann, Zili Zhou, Willington Renteria, Jose Borrero, Dougal Greer, 'Ofa Fa'anunu, Cyprien Bosserelle, Bruce E. Jaffe, SeanPaul La Selle, Andrew C. Ritchie, Alexander G. Snyder, Brandon Nasr, Jaqueline Bott, Nicholas A Graehl, Costas Synolakis, Behzad Ebrahimi, and Ezgi Cinar

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05170-6

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Abstract

On the evening of 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano¹ unleashed a violent underwater eruption, blanketing the surrounding land masses in ash and debris. The eruption generated tsunamis observed around the world. An event of this type last occurred in 1883 during the eruption of Krakatau, and thus we have the first observations of a tsunami from a large emergent volcanic eruption captured with modern instrumentation. Here we show that the explosive eruption generated waves through multiple mechanisms, including: (1) air–sea coupling with the initial and powerful shock wave radiating out from the explosion in the immediate vicinity of the eruption; (2) collapse of the water cavity created by the underwater explosion; and (3) air–sea coupling with the air-pressure pulse that circled the Earth several times, leading to a global tsunami. In the near field, tsunami impacts are strongly controlled by the water-cavity source whereas the far-field tsunami, which was unusually persistent, can be largely described by the air-pressure pulse mechanism. Catastrophic damage in some harbours in the far field was averted by just tens of centimetres, implying that a modest sea level rise combined with a future, similar event would lead to a step-function increase in impacts on infrastructure. Piecing together the complexity of this event has broad implications for coastal hazards in similar geophysical settings, suggesting a currently neglected source of global tsunamis.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Diverse tsunamigenesis triggered by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption
Series title	Nature
DOI	10.1038/s41586-022-05170-6
Volume	609
Year Published	2022
Language	English
Publisher	Nature
Contributing office(s)	Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description	6 p.
First page	728
Last page	733
Other Geospatial	Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page