Tongan blast mightier than Hiroshima

How powerful was the undersea volcano that erupted off the Tongan coast Jan. 15 and triggered tsunami waves across the Pacific? The eruption was "hundreds of times" more powerful than the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima in World War II.

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World News

January 26, 2022 - 10:15 AM

This picture taken shows white gaseous clouds rising from the Hunga Ha'apai eruption seen from the Patangata coastline near Tongan capital Nuku'alofa. Photo by (Mary Lyn Fonua/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

The undersea volcano that erupted off the coast of Tonga this month was “hundreds of times” more powerful than the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima in World War II, according to NASA.

The Jan. 15 blast of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, which triggered tsunami waves which stretched to the Pacific Coast in the U.S. The eruption, which spewed ash across the many of Tonga islands, was heard as far away as Alaska.

“The blast released hundreds of times the equivalent mechanical energy of the Hiroshima nuclear explosion,” NASA said in a statement. “For…

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