All you need to know about Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano

Ground Report | New Delhi: Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano; A new submarine eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, the second this week, has caused the declaration of a tsunami alert for all the islands of the kingdom of Tonga, Fiji, American Samoa, and another high wave alert in New Zealand.

The authorities have ordered the populations to immediately leave the coastal areas while the first flood has begun to flood the residences closest to the beaches, according to the 'New Zealand Times'.

The ash ejected by the volcano has reached a height of 20 kilometers and has reached the capital, Nuku'alofa.

New Zealand Civil Defense anticipates that "north and east coast areas of the North Island and the Chatham Islands will experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges."

What is Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano

The small Tongan island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai was formed in 2015 from a mass of ash and rock that settled after a large underwater volcanic eruption. Normally, such volcanic islands are quickly swallowed by the sea, but this one seems determined to stand out.

At first, it was thought that it would last only a few months, but finally, a NASA study revealed that, although it is an ephemeral island, it could last between six and thirty years. During that time, NASA will be able to study this island and its elements, since it can give a lot of information about the volcanic terrain and ancient sources of water on Mars.

In October 2018, a group of NASA researchers, led by Dan Slayback, arrived at HTHH to study on the ground and found a very different landscape than expected. The first thing they found was that most of the island was covered with black gravel, whose stones are the size of a pea. 

They also found vegetation that was taking root, but the strangest thing was that they found strange mud or very sticky mud that emanated from the volcanic cone of HTHH. 

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