A Tongan volcano has created a substantial new island since it began erupting last month, spewing out huge volumes of rock and dense ash that has killed nearby vegetation, officials said yesterday.
The volcano, about 65km southwest of the South Pacific nation’s capital, Nuku’alofa, rumbled to life on Dec. 20 for the first time in five years, the Ministry of Lands, Surveys and Natural Resources said.
It said the volcano was erupting from two vents, one on the uninhabited island of Hunga Ha’apai and the other underwater about 100m offshore.
Photo: AFP
The ministry said experts took a boat trip to view the eruption on Thursday and confirmed it had transformed the local landscape.
“The new island is more than 1km wide, 2km long and about 100m high,” it said in a statement.
“During our observations the volcano was erupting about every five minutes to a height of about 400m, accompanied by some large rocks... as the ash is very wet, most is being deposited close to the vent, building up the new island,” it said.
Ash and acidic rain were deluging an area 10km around the volcano, it said, adding: “Leaves on trees on Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai have died, probably caused by volcanic ash and gases.”
A number of international flights were canceled earlier this week amid concerns about the volcano’s ash plume, but they resumed on Wednesday, with authorities saying debris from the eruption was not being thrown high into the atmosphere.
Tonga, which is almost 2,000km northeast of New Zealand, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where continental plates collide causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity.
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