Researchers studying the effects of the massive underwater eruption of the Hunga Volcano off the coast of the islands of Tonga in 2022 have shone a light on what the effect of underwater mining could be like.
The mammoth explosion sent debris 30 miles/48km into the air, creating a plume of smoke covering hundreds of miles. The volcanic eruption created tsunami waves that were felt around the Pacific basin, including Japan, the Americas and the Antarctic.
The scientists initially sought to study creatures living around the undersea hot springs. However, few were left when they arrived, and everything was covered in a thick layer of ash.
According Shawn Arellano, to the expedition joint lead associate professor at Western Washington University:
“We didn’t expect to see much, if any, fallout from the eruption because it was a few months later, around a hundred miles away, and more than a mile deep. So we were really surprised by the level of the impact we saw…Or it could just be normal for this area. There haven’t been a lot of collections in this area before, so we don’t really have a baseline we can compare with.”
While according to Roxanne Beinart, the expedition’s other lead and associate professor at the University of Rhode Island:
“There are very few modern examples of observations of ash deposition in the ocean. But there are many cases where scientists are looking at similar events in the fossil record and trying to piece together what happened. We did see some types of bacteria still present in the environment, but we don’t know whether they’re able to reproduce or they’re just in a dormant stage, waiting to attach to a host animal. The biological components for recovery are there, but we have no idea if they’ll actually be able to bounce back.”
You can see a report and footage of the explosion below.
