The Fate of Tonga

Some of the after effects around the world here - including some satellite imagery

LIVE Satellite tracking the Hunga Tonga volcano

@[Deleted User] How likely is it that at least some of the islands have been rendered uninhabitable for a few months at least,

Most of the islands are already uninhabitaed

@Tomalak As Gatling rightly pointed out, the twin islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, which used to be linked by the volcano that blew itself apart on Saturday, were already uninhabited. The chance of a pyroclastic flow making it across the 50 or so kilometres of open water between these two islands and Tonga itself are slim to none, though I'm not totally ruling it out.

The big issue I'm concerned about is ashfall from the cloud covering up and suffocating plant life on Tonga, as well as potentially poisoning any open wells or drinking water reservoirs. Given the sheer size of that ash cloud, the amount of ash precipitation is likely going to be significant.

@Kevhog1988 The Royal New Zealand Navy has its ships on stand-by, but I'd say they're waiting on more reconnaissance reports from the P-3C Orion and P-8 Poseidon flights before they decide which ships in particular to send. Sending out a frigate or their fleet oiler HMNZS Aotearoa doesn't make sense if the quayside infrastructure is damaged, while operations from their amphibious landing ship HMNZS Canterbury could be impeded by floating pumice rafts and debris in the water.

One of the victims is a British national

Scott Manley has a good video on it, shows the pressure wave travelling across various countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoMRwyNhqJ4

Can't understand why countries neighbouring didn't put up planes the same day it happened to see how bad the damage was, there's 100k people live here. I also can't understand how come satellite phones from the area aboard ships and yachts have not been used to communicate to the rest of the world what has happened, these phones have zero reliance on any base stations in the area the call is being made from.

IridiumGo maybe 20 years ago, basic trawlers now have broadband via satellite at affordable prices.

Too much ash in the air for satellite comms

Consider that even heavy rain affects satellite signals - physical obstructions like ash make it a no-go.

That ash cloud with the lightning striking is an awesome sight, and quite scary if you happen to be anywhere nearby.

It really is. I've had that thought a few times recently. Watching the videos of the lava flows rushing down the mountain in La Palma or old videos of the Japanese tsunami hitting. When those kind of events happen - it doesn't matter how advanced our technology has come along in the past few centuries - all we can do is get out of the way as best we can and let nature do its thing.

Kind of crazy when you see it in that context, that's the ash cloud as it would look over France. On a lighter note, the name Tonga always makes me think of swimming togs.