Astronauts on the International Space Station captured the aftermath of a powerful volcanic eruption that destroyed a small island in the Pacific Ocean and sent tons of ash into the atmosphere on Saturday (January 15).
Several weather satellites recorded the eruption as it happened, revealing a massive cloud resembling a nuclear explosion that engulfed the entire Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga immediately after the explosion.
The volcanic ash raised by the explosion was later found up to 24 miles (39 kilometers) high, a frightening sight for astronauts aboard the space station.
NASA astronaut Kyla Barron took photos of the ash plumes as the station flew over New Zealand, about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) south of the volcano, on Sunday (January 16), a day after the eruption. The photographs show the darkened sky above the Earth, covered with thick clouds of ash.
Ash from Saturday's underwater volcanic eruption in the remote Pacific country of Tonga rose thousands of feet into the atmosphere and was visible from @Space_Station. While flying over New Zealand on Sunday, Kyla Barron opened a window and saw the aftermath of the eruption,” NASA said on Twitter.
The eruption of an underwater volcano destroyed the island of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Haapai, which, fortunately, turned out to be uninhabited. However, the tsunami caused by the eruption caused significant damage to the nearby islands of a remote kingdom located on both sides of the tectonically active border between the Pacific and Australian plates.
The volcano has shown signs of increased activity in previous weeks, having already erupted in December. However, this eruption was seven times less powerful. Volcanologists said Saturday's explosion was the most powerful volcanic eruption on Earth since Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.
The tsunami caused by the eruption reached far beyond Polynesia
