A volcano explodes off the island of Tonga blasting dust an incredible 60,000ft, almost 20km into the sky which will have a cooling climate effect for at least the next couple of months at least: The blast was almost as strong as the Krakatau eruption which caused a volcanic winter

Credit, Tonga Geological Services:

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano sent shockwaves across the South Pacific. Tonga's capital lies just 65km north of the volcano.

An underwater volcano has erupted off the island of Tonga blasting rocks, ash and steam an incredible 60,000ft, almost 20km into the sky which will have a cooling climate effect for at least the next couple of months and depending on the duration and size of the eruption could cool the planet...

The shock wave from the eruption is expected to reverberate around the world and windows have been broken from the blast hundreds of km's away.

The strength of the massive eruption was VEI 5, let me put that into some kind of perspective, the famous Krakatau eruption in 1883 was a VEI 6. According to Wikipedia, the Krakatau eruption caused a volcanic winter. In the year following the eruption, average Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures fell by 0.4 °C (0.72 °F). The record rainfall that hit Southern California during the water year from July 1883 to June 1884 – Los Angeles received 970 millimetres (38.18 in) and San Diego 660 millimetres (25.97 in) – has been attributed to the Krakatoa eruption. This eruption could be the perfect geological event to cool the planet and will have the climate change people jumping with joy! 

The head of Tonga Geological Services, Taaniela Kula, told RNZ Pacific that at 4am on Friday 15 January, the eruption was picked up on satellite. Kula said the eruption on Friday was almost seven times bigger than the one on 20 December, bigger in terms of the radius of the plume that was scattered from the volcano, up to 250km away from the volcano radius. A tsunami warning lifted but volcano still monitored.

Credit Tonga Geological Services

2022 has seen a remarkable uptick in solar, seismic and volcanic activity in the first couple of weeks of the new year.

The fledgling new year has already surprised many scientists and experts as 2022 begins its first baby steps into the unknown. 

Record number of major quakes starts off the new year!

It is very early days indeed but halfway through January 2022 and our planet is throwing quite a few surprises our way! On the 11th of January, two powerful major quakes, a mag 6.8 and a mag 6.6 rocked Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The two major quakes,(mag 6 or higher) in Alaska brought the total to 11 in the first 11 days of 2022 which is quite a start to the year, well—it's a record, going back further than 1900. As far as I can see from the USGS data base 11 major quakes in first 11 days of a year has never happened before. And, it hasn't stopped, this morning a magnitude 6.6 rocked the Sunda Straight in Indonesia bringing the total to 12 major quakes, (mag 6 or higher) in the first 14 days of January, 2022.

We know seismic events on earth are influenced by our sun and so far this year the sunspot count is more than out-performing the "experts" predictions.

Solar Cycle 25 is heating up in 2022. New sunspot counts from NOAA confirm that the young solar cycle is outperforming the official forecast. Sunspot counts have exceeded predictions for 15 straight months now. The monthly value at the end of December 2021 was more than twice the forecast, and the highest in more than 5 years, according to Spaceweather.com. Last year's major quake total of 160—(mag 6 or higher) was the highest yearly count since the record 'bustin year of 2011 and 2022 has been a record breaking start since records begun. Full story

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