We should all be worried about Tonga.

There’s a lot of news in the news. But let’s spare a though for Tonga. During normal times there would have been more coverage of what will have no doubt been a terrible tragedy in the Pacific nation of Tonga. From what I understand, there was an eruption on the uninhabited volcanic island of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai. This was an underwater eruption and has been described as a one in one thousand year event. It is comparable with Krakatoa in 1883.

Just to give you an idea about the power of the event, it registered on my air quality monitoring station. The BME280 barometer recorded an air pressure strike around 7PM on January 15th 2021 and took around 14 hours to travel around the world, and then again at 0100 on the 16th when the shockwave travelled around the long way.

There’s not much news coming from Tonga at the moment. The fibre optic link was damaged during the event and they are effectively cut off from the rest of the world. New Zealand is sending ships to help and their only runway is covered in ash. This is not good at all.

That’s all I want to say right now.