Data in Action: The 2022 Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha′apai eruption - Altimetry data and models help us understand how a volcanic eruption generated a tsunami | PO.DAAC / JPL / NASA

Volcanic eruptions can trigger tsunamis that pose significant threats to nearby coastal communities. The mechanisms responsible for the formation of tsunamis after volcanic eruptions are still poorly understood. Some possibilities include submarine landslides, pyroclastic flows (fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter that flows in the ocean), caldera column collapses (massive blocks of rock near the top of the volcano sliding down into the volcano), deep-ocean explosions, volcano-tectonic earthquakes, or atmospheric air-pressure waves. More research is needed to better understand these mechanisms so that better early warning systems can be developed. The Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha′apai volcano is situated in the South Pacific Ocean about 1000 km south of Fiji and Samoa islands

Tonga volcano eruption was fueled by 2 merging chambers that are still brimming with magma

Researchers have mapped the magma plumbing system beneath Tonga's underwater volcano and discovered three magma chambers, two of which fed the record-shattering 2022 eruption.

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