![]() ![]() Tonga’s only case so far was caught at its border one disaster must not lead to another. The hope is they do not also carry covid-19. Navy ships carrying aid from Australia and New Zealand are on the way. Water is particularly vital: many Tongans capture fresh rainwater from their roofs to drink. Emergency workers are handing out food, water and tents, according to the prime minister’s office. Grim satellite images show heaps of ash smothering entire islands. Reports suggest that roads and bridges have been destroyed, though the airport is intact. ![]() New Zealand and Australia have sent surveillance flights over the archipelago to assess the damage. ![]() Flights in and out of Tonga were suspended at first, owing to ash on the international airport’s runway. Repairs could take weeks as the closest repair vessel is 2,500km away. Communication with Tonga was possible only by satellite phone initially the submarine cable that connects it to Fiji and thence to the outside world was severed. So is the extent of damage to crops, villages and livelihoods. Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) Tokyo warned about a volcanic ash plume that rose up to estimated 13000 ft (4000 m) altitude or flight level 130 and is moving at 30 kts in E direction. The true number of deaths among the country’s 100,000 people is unknown. Shiveluch (Kamchatka): Explosive activity continues. Satellite images now show that only a chunk of one of the former islands remains visible. “As it rose from the sea, layers of liquid magma filled a network of chambers beneath it.” When the magma in those chambers erupted on January 15th, the vast explosion in the seas and skies seems to have been coupled with an implosion in the rocks below as some of those chambers collapsed, undermining the caldera and its rim. “The island’s formation also probably seeded its destruction,” says James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. An eruption in December 2014 filled the gap between the volcano’s two islands with ash, joining them. ![]()
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