January’s volcanic explosion circled the Earth six times, sending gravity waves traveling at near-theoretical speed.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano on January 15 has been revealed to have produced gravity waves that circled the globe six times, continuing to reverberate for 12 hours. This unprecedented phenomenon is detailed in a new paper published in Nature.
The eruption, described as “genuinely huge” by lead author Corwin Wright, a research fellow at the University of Bath, marks a unique event in scientific history. “We’ve never seen atmospheric waves going round the whole world before, or at this speed,” Wright stated, noting that the waves were traveling close to the theoretical limit of speed for such phenomena.
