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- Title
Rapid Characterization of Large Volcanic Eruptions: Measuring the Impulse of the Hunga Tonga Ha'apai Explosion From Teleseismic Waves.
- Authors
Poli, Piero; Shapiro, Nikolai M.
- Abstract
Most of the largest volcanic activity in the world occurs in remote places such as deep oceans or poorly monitored oceanic island arcs. Thus, our capacity of monitoring volcanoes is limited to remote sensing and global geophysical observations. However, the rapid estimation of volcanic eruption parameters is needed for scientific understanding of the eruptive process and rapid hazard estimation. We present a method to rapidly identify large volcanic explosions, based on analysis of seismic data. With this methodology, we promptly detect the 15 January 2022 Hunga Tonga Ha'apai eruption. We then analyze the seismic waves generated by the volcanic explosion and estimate its important first‐order parameters. We further relate the parameters with the volcanic explosivity index (VEI). Our estimate of VEI ∼ 6 indicates that how the Hunga Tonga eruption is among the largest volcanic activity ever recorded with modern geophysical instrumentation and can provide new insights into the physics of large eruptions. Plain Language Summary: The Hunga Tonga Ha'apai volcanic eruption that occurred on 15 January 2022 had a global impact by ejecting a huge volume of ashes and volcanic gases in the atmosphere and with generating a tsunami that affected many Pacific countries. This volcanic event has been also well recorded by modern satellite and land‐based geophysical instruments. Despite the unprecedented wealth of high quality and rapidly available scientific data, main quantitative parameters of the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption such as its size in comparison with previous major eruptions could not be estimated rapidly with "standard" monitoring algorithms. This emphasizes the need to develop new approaches for analysis of instrumental observations. We show how the data recorded by seismographic stations operating all around the World, which are available in real time, can be analyzed to determine main eruption parameters including its location and size within less than 2 hr after its occurrence. Key Points: Hunga Tonga volcanic explosion has been automatically detected with surface waves recorded by global seismological networksAnalysis of global surface waves resulted in measurement of the explosion impulse and led to estimating its Volcanic Explosivity Index as 6With near‐real‐time implementation of our methods, major volcanic explosions can be detected and characterized within less than 2 hr
- Subjects
TSUNAMI warning systems; EXPLOSIONS; VOLCANIC gases; SEISMOLOGICAL stations; SEISMIC waves; GEOPHYSICAL observations; GEOPHYSICAL instruments; VOLCANIC eruptions
- Publication
Geophysical Research Letters, 2022, Vol 49, Issue 8, p1
- ISSN
0094-8276
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2022GL098123