Tonga volcanic eruption, which rise above the stratosphere, was the most powerful ever

The underwater volcano, which broke out in Tonga, blew rubs over the stratosphere "like a shotgun" and was the largest that was ever recorded by modern equipment.

The outbreak of the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in January spat out about 10 cubic kilometers of rock and ash, which corresponds to about 4,000 ancient Egyptian pyramids, and was so loud that it could be heard in Alaska, 6,000 miles away.

The Explosion transported gas and ashes halfway into space and hurled the rubble 35 miles into the mesosphere, the level above the stratosphere of the earth.

"We have never seen anything so far beforehand," said Simon Proud, an expert in satellite remote exploration at the British National Center for Earth Observation. "It was really breathtaking."

The volcano broke out with a force that corresponded to hundreds of atomic bombs, and generated a tsunami that traveled around the world, with higher waves being registered up to the Mediterranean.

"The outbreak reached record heights and was the first one we have ever seen into the mesosphere," said marine geologist and project manager Kevin Mackay. "It was like a shotgun explosion directly into the sky." It is the highest recorded eruption column in human history, he said.

The outbreak was so strong that it produced a 50 foot tsunami wave and reorganized the sea floor when debris were pushed away from the Seeberg.

On the surrounding islands, houses were destroyed, seaside resorts were washed away and at least six people died - two of them in Peru.

The extraordinary effects of the outbreak were mapped by British and New Zealand surveying ships in a mission under the direction of the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The sea floor was mapped by a New Zealand research ship called RV Tangaroa as part of a project called Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (Tesmap).

In the second phase, a British robot ship was used to monitor the ongoing volcanic activity.

The UPS (Uncrewed Surface Vessel) Maxlimer built by the British company Sea-Kit International was controlled by a control room on the other side of the world in Tollesbury, Essex.

scientists found that the amount of materials outcast by the volcano corresponded to 2.6 million Olympic swimming pools.

The outbreak of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai competes with the outbreak of Krakatau in Indonesia in 1883, a disaster in which tens of thousands of people died.

"Although this outbreak was great-one of the largest since Krakatau-the difference here is that it is an underwater volcano, and it is also one of the reasons why we got such large tsunami waves," said Dr. Mackay opposite Afp.

The ash cloud that escaped from the volcano contained almost two cubic kilometers particles that stayed in the atmosphere for months and caused spectacular sunsets to New Zealand.

The crater of the volcano is now 700 meters deeper than before, said scientist.

The pyroclastic currents of the outbreak - fatal currents from lava, volcanic ash and gases, which reach temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) - carried debris from the volcano at least 50 miles along the sea floor.

"The sheer power of the currents is amazing - we saw deposits in valleys beyond the volcano, which means that they had enough strength to flow over huge burrs and then down again," said Dr. Emily Lane, the leading scientist of the team.

The force of the outbreak cut through a submarine that connects Tonga to the rest of the world, although the cable was 30 miles from the volcano and was behind a large elevation in the sea floor.