Tsunami hits Tonga and sets off alarms on other islands

A tsunami broke out this Saturday (15.01.2022) off the coast of the island of Tonga, in the South Pacific, with no possible casualties reported so far. The phenomenon would have occurred after a violent volcanic eruption, according to local media.
Authorities issued a nationwide tsunami warning following the eruption of the Underwater volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai, about 65 kilometers from the island of Tongatapu, the main island island nation populated by about 71,000 inhabitants. They have also asked the entire population settled on the coasts to go to high areas to protect themselves from the onslaught of the waves and wear masks before the ash rain.
The big waves hit houses and buildings located on the beachfront and quickly flooded the vicinity. This is shown by several videos published on social networks by witnesses who had taken refuge on the roof of their houses. The same affected by the waves reported that the volcano erupted at 17.20 (local time) and threw a huge cloud of ash into the air.
The sea also affected much of the island of Vanua Levu in northeastern Fiji, while Samoan authorities have issued an alert for a possible rise in the waters. More than 100 families from two villages on the Samoan island of Savaii have been evacuated, police said.

New Zealand’s Emergency Management Agency said on Twitter that it expects “strong currents and unpredictable storm surges” on the north and east coast of the North Island and the chatham Islands of the oceanic country, and in Vanuatu they called for the “immediate evacuation” of coastal areas due to strong currents and waves. Destructive tsunami waves estimated at between 1 and 2.5 metres have been observed on some of our islands in Vanuatu. Tsunami waves are expected to remain possible along the coasts of all vanuatu islands overnight,” the Meteorological and Geological Hazards Department said in a statement.
For its part, the Tonga Meteorological Service published on its Facebook profile a shocking satellite image of the cloud caused by the underwater volcano, which already showed signs of increasing activity the day before and also momentarily triggered the tsunami warning. Meanwhile, the Australian Weather Service estimated, after ruling out a tsunami warning for hours, that a large wave could hit coastal areas of the east and southeast of the country, from the state of Queensland to the island of Tasmania.

Original source in Spanish

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