In the minutes surrounding January 15, 2022, the seafloor beneath Tonga did not merely erupt — it gave way, plunging hundreds of meters in a piston-like collapse that science is only now beginning to fully account for. A study published in Nature Geoscience has revealed that the catastrophic tsunamis which swept across the Pacific were shaped not by the eruption alone, but by the sudden, simultaneous descent of an entire caldera and the landslides that accompanied it. For the communities who endured the waves, and for the many more who live near submarine volcanoes across the Pacific, this kno
Study reveals seafloor collapse amplified 2022 Tonga tsunami devastation
The 2022 eruption and resulting tsunamis caused widespread damage to Tonga, destroying over 190 kilometers of undersea telecommunications cables and leaving survivors with lasting trauma.