Atmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga
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2022-05-12
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Matoza, Robin S., et al. “Atmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga” Science 377, no. 6601 (12 May 2022): 95-100. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo7063
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Abstract
The 15 January 2022 climactic eruption of Hunga volcano, Tonga, produced an explosion in theatmosphere of a size that has not been documented in the modern geophysical record. The eventgenerated a broad range of atmospheric waves observed globally by various ground-based andspaceborne instrumentation networks. Most prominent was the surface-guided Lamb wave (≲0.01 hertz),which we observed propagating for four (plus three antipodal) passages around Earth over 6 days.As measured by the Lamb wave amplitudes, the climactic Hunga explosion was comparable in size tothat of the 1883 Krakatau eruption. The Hunga eruption produced remarkable globally detected infrasound(0.01 to 20 hertz), long-range (~10,000 kilometers) audible sound, and ionospheric perturbations.Seismometers worldwide recorded pure seismic and air-to-ground coupled waves. Air-to-sea coupling likelycontributed to fast-arriving tsunamis. Here, we highlight exceptional observations of the atmospheric waves