The recent violent volcanic eruption in Tonga is one of the strongest ever recorded, according to a new study, and future eruptions could be possible in the area.
Its explosive yield has been put at anything from 5 million to 30 million tons of TNT equivalent by NASA scientists who've studied preliminary data from the January 15 blast.
The eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state in 1980 produced the same yield as around 24 million tons of exploding TNT.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, an underwater volcano in the South Pacific, spewed debris as high as 25 miles into the atmosphere when it erupted almost a fortnight ago.
This 7.4 magnitude earthquake sent tsunami waves crashing into shorelines, causing destruction, and resulted in the death of three people in the region.
The recent violent volcanic eruption in Tonga is one of the strongest ever recorded, according to a new study, and future eruptions could be possible in the area
A new study by Texas A&M University found that the eruption ranks among the strongest in at least 30 years in terms of explosive yield, similar to the Mount St Helens eruption from 1980, which had an energy blast equivalent to 24 million tons of TNT.
Both St Helens and Tonga are a fraction of the power of the 200 megaton Krakatoa explosion, that went off near Indonesia in 1883, killing more than 36,000 people.
Professor Andreas Kronenberg, study author, said the eruption on Tonga likely ranks among the strongest in at least 30 years.
The eruption could be heard nearly 1,500 miles away in New Zealand, and caused a massive ash cloud to form over the islands, which was visible from space.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, an underwater volcano in the South Pacific, spewed debris as high as 25 miles into the atmosphere when it erupted on January 15
'In general, the volcanoes around the Pacific Rim are much more powerful and explosive than Hawaiian-type volcanoes, mostly because of the volatile content and magma compositions in them,' Kronenberg explained.
'This is why we are concerned about the volcanoes in the Oregon, Washington and Alaska regions,' he added, as they are of a similar nature.
'However, the Tonga subduction zone is a large one and the entire Southwest Pacific has what we call 'stratovolcanoes.'
'These are extremely powerful volcanoes and are also the kinds that include Mt. Vesuvius that covered Pompeii in Italy and Mt St Helens, which exploded a few decades ago.'
Mt St. Helens, an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, exploded in 1980 and is considered the most powerful eruption in US history.
The largest eruption ever is believed to be the eruption of Krakatoa, which exploded near Indonesia in 1883 and killed more than 36,000 people.
Some have compared Tonga to Krakatoa in eruption force, however, data purely on explosion puts Krokatoa at at least six times more powerful than Tonga.
That doesn't mean Tonga wasn't devastating, and NASA said it was at least 500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
A new study by Texas A&M University found that the eruption ranks among the strongest in at least 30 years, similar to the Mount St Helens eruption from 1980, which had an energy blast equivalent to 24 million tonnes of TNT (pictured)
This 7.4 magnitude earthquake sent tsunami waves crashing into shorelines, causing destruction, and resulted in the death of three people in the region
The US atomic bomb