[bootlegga]

llama66 llama66:

NASA researchers have an estimate of the power of a massive volcanic eruption that took place on Saturday near the island nation of Tonga.

"We come up with a number that's around 10 megatons of TNT equivalent," James Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR.

That means the explosive force was more than 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/10738004 ... 0-megatons

Honestly, I'm surprised it was so small, I would have thought the explosion was bigger based on the devastation and video from space. About the only positive I see is that this explosion gives us an idea of what a major nuclear war would look like and more incentive to scale back weapons stockpiles and maybe even eventually decommission them altogether (assuming every other nuclear power does so as well).

Aside: The thing is that the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are small by modern comparison - strategic nuclear warheads are often several hundred kilotons or a megaton or two, depending on what their target might be. However, as ICBMs and warheads have become more accurate, the US has been able to replace its big multi-megaton warheads with smaller hundreds of kilotons warheads.

[Scape]

Tonga volcano: Surveillance images show catastrophic devastation

[raydan]

llama66 llama66:

NASA researchers have an estimate of the power of a massive volcanic eruption that took place on Saturday near the island nation of Tonga.

"We come up with a number that's around 10 megatons of TNT equivalent," James Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR.

That means the explosive force was more than 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/18/10738004 ... 0-megatons

The asteroid hit that knocked out the dinosaurs was the equivalent of 100 teratons of TNT... so this explosion is still small fries.

Wonder why my spell checker wants to replace teratons with alterations.

[Scape]

[Strutz]

$1:

The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano caused a tsunami, 400,000 lighting strikes and shockwaves that have circled the planet at least twice. Here's everything we know about the Tonga volcano.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/tonga ... ket-newtab

An interesting article to read about this event.

[Scape]