The violent eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga in January blasted a record amount of water vapor into the atmosphere, but not all scientists agree about the exact amount and its possible effects.
According to that study, the volcanic eruption was so violent that its plume penetrated into the stratosphere, blasting at least 50 teragrams (50 billion kilograms) of water vapor.
The stratosphere is the layer of atmosphere between 8 and 33 miles above the earth’s surface.
“This event raised the amount of water vapor in the developing stratospheric plume by several orders of magnitude and possibly increased the amount of global stratospheric water vapor by more than 5 percent,” the paper reads.
In a NASA study conducted at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, researchers claim the amount of water vapor released was about 146 teragrams, nearly three times more than the amount cited in the Science study.
No Comparison, Says NASA Scientist
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” Luis Millan, an atmospheric scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the NASA report. He led the study of the water vapor brought on by the Tonga volcanic eruption.In the past 18 years, only two other volcanic eruptions sent “appreciable amounts” of water vapor to such high altitudes—the 2008 Kasatochi event in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile—according to NASA.
Both eruptions were “mere blips” compared to the Tonga volcanic eruption, and the water vapor produced dissipated quickly. Water vapor from the Tonga volcano could remain in the stratosphere for “several years,” NASA said.
“This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures,” the agency stated.
NASA said that the Tonga volcano did not inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere. The massive amounts of water vapor from the eruption could have “a small, temporary warming effect,” the agency said, but the effect will dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere.
NASA said in April that the Tonga volcano eruption was “hundreds of times” stronger than the Hiroshima nuclear explosion.