Images of the Day: Tonga Islands Grow Larger

New Landmass Formed by Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Eruption

Submarine Eruption in the Tonga Islands

Image acquired March 26, 2009

Image acquired November 14, 2006

In mid-March 2009, a plume of ash and gas burst out of the ocean as an undersea volcano began to erupt in the South Pacific nation of Tonga. Small sections of the rim of the large undersea volcano had been above water, forming the islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai. The eruption occurred at two vents, one submerged and the other on Hunga Ha’apai. The eruption pumped out enough rock and ash that by March 25, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top image, the submerged vent was surrounded by new land.

The new land is the dark mass south of Hunga Ha’apai. It had not been present when ASTER acquired the lower image on November 14, 2006. In the March 25 image, clouds cover the space between the new land and Hunga Ha’apai, but news reports indicate that the new land connects Hunga Ha’apai with the underwater vent, essentially enlarging the small island. The vent itself is the nearly perfect circular hole near the southern edge of the new land.

The image reveals some of the other impacts of the eruption. The ocean around the erupting volcano is bright blue, likely colored with ash, rock, and other volcanic debris. The eruption also killed or damaged plants on Hunga Ha’apai. In these false-color images, plant-covered land is red. In 2006, Hunga Ha’apai had supported vegetation, but after the eruption, the island was black. Either the plants were buried in ash or dead in the wake of the eruption. According to a visiting reporter, the eruption destroyed plant and birdlife on the island, leaving blackened tree stumps and dead birds and fish.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Holli Riebeek.Instrument: Terra – ASTER

Related and Possibly Related Links:

• Weekly Volcano Watch: 26 March 2009
• Hunga Ha’apai Volcano Update
• Magnitude 7.9 Quake Strikes Tonga Region
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 19 March 2009
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Magnitude 7 Earthquake Hits Kermadec Islands

Redoubt Volcano Erupts Explosively

Published at: March 28, 2009 06:05 UTC (March 27, 2009 22:05 AKDT)

Redoubt Volcano Latest Observations (Source: AVO)

2009-03-27 21:55:58 AKDT
At 19:25 AKDT March 27, 2009 (3:25 UTC March 28) an explosive eruption occurred at Redoubt volcano. National Weather Service reports an ash cloud height of about 51,000 feet above sea level. This follows closely behind the eruption that occurred at approximately 17:35 AKDT (01:35 UTC) that sent ash to an estimated height of 40,000 feet above sea level.
See the National Weather Service Redoubt Coordination Page for any ash fall advisories: http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/volcano.php

For background information and selection of previous images see:

• Redoubt Volcano: Recent Images
• Redoubt Erupts
• More Redoubt images

For Latest Images see below:

Photograph of impact from the volcanic ash fall out in Nikiski, AK from Redoubt volcano. This plume was generated during the March 28, 15:29 AKDT, 2009 event, and ash fall began at approximately 16:16 AKDT and lasted maybe 5 minutes. Fine ash is resuspended as vehicles drive over the recently deposited ash fall deposit. Picture Date: March 30, 2009 16:45:00 AKDT. Image Creator:  Kristi Wallace. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph of Redoubt’s March 27, 19:25 eruption cloud, as seen from near Homer. Photograph courtesy of Dennis Anderson. Picture Date: March 27, 2009 19:57:00. Image Creator: Dennis Anderson. Image courtesy of Dennis Anderson (via AVO)  http://www.auroradude.com

Photograph taken during oberservation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Ash cloud seen in the geostationary MTSAT data, courtesy of the National Weather Service, processed by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . We are at the extreme edge of the view for the satellite which is over the equator in Asia. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:30:00 UTC. Image Creator: Jonathan Dehn. Image courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Redoubt volcano viewed from the south over the ash-covered Crescent River Valley. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:18:45 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View northeast over the piedmont lobe of the Drift Glacier and down the Drift River valley showing the effects of flooding caused by eruptions of Redoubt volcano earlier in the day. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:29:02 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph taken during observation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph taken during observation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View west across Drift River of small eruption cloud over Redoubt volcano. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 16:08:16 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph of Redoubt’s ash cloud, taken on the morning of Thursday, March 26, 2009, by Robert Cole, Peninsula Airways pilot. Image courtesy of Robert Cole and PenAir.

View of the ash-covered lower Crescent River Valley. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:17:25 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

OMI sulfur dioxide satellite image from the March 23 2009 eruptive events at Redoubt volcano. Colors represent relative amount of gas with dark orange/red being the highest and blue/purple the lowest. This is from combining 2 OMI orbits for March 23 2009. AURA/OMI: 03/23/2009 20:43 – 22:34 UTC, SO2 mass: 42.152 kt; Area: 285,359 km2, SO2 max: 58.87 DU at Lon: -149.05, Lat: 61.58. These data are from NASA’s EOS-Aura satellite and its Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), courtesy of Dr. Simon Carn, Michigan Technology University. Picture Date: March 25, 2009.

Photograph of ash fall at Homestead Lodge, about 35 miles south of Redoubt, on the western side of Cook Inlet. View is of the backyard, with ash. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: James Isaak. Image courtesy of the photographer.

SEM image of ash particles erupted by Redoubt volcano on March 22, 2009. The ash sample was collected during the ashfall in Healy, Alaska by Pavel Izbekov on March 23, 2009. The image was acquired by Pavel Izbekov and Jill Shipman using ISI-50 Scanning Electron Microscope at the Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Picture Date: March 24, 2009. Image Creator: Pavel Izbekov.  Jill Shipman. Image courtesy of the AVO/UAF-GI.

Related Links and volcano entries for March 2009:

• 60 pct Chance Redoubt May Erupt
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 26 March 2009
• Redoubt Volcano: Recent Images
• Redoubt Erupts

• Hunga Ha’apai Volcano Update
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 19 March 2009
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 12 March 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 5 March 2009 [Take 2]

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Possible Thule Eruption Disasterous for Antarctic Ice