Monitoring and Modeling the Rapid Evolution of Earth's Newest Volcanic Island: Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai (Tonga) Using High Spatial Resolution Satellite Observations
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- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States)
- Canadian Space Agency, Saint‐Hubert, Quebec (Canada)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC/UMD), College Park, MD (United States)
We have monitored a newly erupted volcanic island in the Kingdom of Tonga, unofficially known as Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai, by means of relatively frequent high spatial resolution (~50 cm) satellite observations. The new ~1.8 km2 island formed as a tuff cone over the course of a month-long hydromagmatic eruption in early 2015 in the Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc. Such ash-dominated eruptions usually produce fragile subaerial landscapes that wash away rapidly due to marine erosion, as occurred nearby in 2009. Our measured rates of erosion are ~0.00256 km3/year from derived digital topographic models. Preliminary measurements of the topographic expression of the primary tuff cone over ~30 months suggest a lifetime of ~19 years (and potentially up to 42 years). The ability to measure details of a young island's landscape evolution using satellite remote sensing has not previously been possible at these spatial and temporal resolutions.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1438984
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-131017
- Journal Information:
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 8; ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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