| SAMADHA - TESTA GRIGIA STATION |
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On January 15 at 4:14 UTC the undersea volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in the Tonga islands in South Pacific made a violent eruption. A huge plume of ash, gas and steam was spewed up to 20 kilometers into the atmosphere and tsunami waves were sent crashing across the Pacific. The blast from the explosion was strong enough to be "heard" in all the world. 
Satellite GEOS-17 animation |
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The same day, at 20:45 local time (19:45 UTC), a pressure wave
was recorded at the Testa Grigia Meteo Station, 15:50 hours after the explosion.
The pressure increased by about 0.8 hPa, followed by an abrupt decrease of 1.5 hPa.
According to the time delay between the explosion and the wave arrival, the wave travelled for 17200 km with a speed of 1100 km/h (a little less than the speed of sound). Pressure fluctuations were present for many hours after the first signal. In particular, the wave propagating from the volcano in the opposite direction arrived at Testa Grigia 5 hours later, at about 2:00 local time, after a travel of 22860 km. ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE from January 15 2022 12:00 to January 16 12:00 (local time) 
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The uninhabited volcanic island of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai was completely destroyed by the explosion, that was estimate to be 10 megatons in size, 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 
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