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How big was the Tonga eruption?

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Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#161

Post by muti »

divbzero wrote: post #116
RowanH wrote: post #79

Heard it go bang, 2600km away, echoing through the hills around our place at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. That's pretty staggering to think about it. Then to see other peoples Home Assistants around the world pick up the change in pressure on opposite sides of the planet. Mental, just mental...

What did the “bang” sound like? Was it the sharp crack of thunder close by, the slower rumbling of distant thunder, the sound of fireworks exploding, or would some other description fit better?

I also heard it in the north of the South Island of NZ. To me it sounded like very distant explosions, like a cannon firing, or avalanche control explosives.

We heard multiple explosions over the span of a minute or two, presumably from the multiple paths the sound took as they all sounded the same.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#163

Post by nameistaken »

tacker2000 wrote: post #150
phist_mcgee wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the mix of your commas and periods in numbers a little confusing. >305,8 m/s but also 8.7m and ~1.4 hPa. I know that Europeans have a different notation to Americans, but is there a rule here I am missing?

No, there is no missed rule, the comma is the only official decimal separator in these parts. But I can relate to the the OP. Us here in the comma world are forever converting numbers in CSV and Excel files back and forth so as to display them in a proper number format. It’s like that darned USB port, you have to flip it 3 times to get it right.

This should be the grand compromise.

The US will convert to metric, however everyone else has to convert from commas to decimal points.

Places using decimal separators and the metric system are the real winners here.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#164

Post by muti »

RowanH wrote: post #79

Heard it go bang, 2600km away, echoing through the hills around our place at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. That's pretty staggering to think about it. Then to see other peoples Home Assistants around the world pick up the change in pressure on opposite sides of the planet. Mental, just mental...

We also heard it while tramping on the thousand acre plateau just north of Murchison. It was very quiet, so we were lucky to be where we were with no noise pollution to drown it out.

Though at the time we had no clue what it was, we joked about being in the Tomorrow series timeline.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#165

Post by lambda_dn »

Wondering if any ships were destroyed by the eruption the scale makes me think there had to be?

Could Volcano eruptions be Earth's way of stabilizing climate change? i.e. sea water gets warmer and is no longer keeping the eruptions from occurring. Then the eruptions causes a drop in temperature due to the ash in the atmosphere?

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#166

Post by munificent »

sveme wrote: post #92
munificent wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, these images are incidentally an excellent reminder to Europeans of how big the United States is. I read a lot of criticisms of the US from people overseas that seem to rest on a lack of understanding of the scale of the country. The US is huge. A volcanic plume that covers most of Britain or Spain would only cover about half of California. You can wrap your head around it using "Measure distance" in Google Maps…

Bit similar to how everyone misunderstands the size of Africa. Here's a nice toy to play around with for a couple of hours: https://thetruesize.com So it makes sense to compare the US to Europe as a continent. Got it. What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US?

> What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US?

The main one is just not understanding how difficult transit and logistics is here. I've heard British people complain that we should just put high speed passenger rail all across the country like they did while not realizing that their country is literally 1% of the size of the US and more than ten times the population density.

The most sadly hilarious one I see fairly often is Europeans planning vacations to the states and intending to drive across the country in a few days so they can see all the big landmarks on the east and west coasts. It takes a lot longer than they realize.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#167

Post by munificent »

cwillu wrote: post #93
munificent wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, these images are incidentally an excellent reminder to Europeans of how big the United States is. I read a lot of criticisms of the US from people overseas that seem to rest on a lack of understanding of the scale of the country. The US is huge. A volcanic plume that covers most of Britain or Spain would only cover about half of California. You can wrap your head around it using "Measure distance" in Google Maps…

I find the EU is a better frame of reference for the US than any given country is.

Yes. And to put it in further perspective, the entire EU is still only 43% of the area of the US.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#168

Post by throwawayboise »

cwkoss wrote: post #157
smitty1110 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wikipedia page[1] for the event says a temporary drop of 0.1-0.5 degrees C for the next 12-15 months. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hunga_Tonga_eruption_and_...

Is this a net 'good thing' for global human life because it will counterbalance anthropogenic climate change? (Probably still a significant net harm to Tongans I'd imagine :-( ) To what extent are the particles kicked up into the atmosphere a problem for life? Are they carcinogenic or respiratory risks?

I doubt it; it's a short-lived effect and probably doesn't really fall outside the normal range of year-to-year temperature variances.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#169

Post by Bilal_io »

nameistaken wrote: post #163
tacker2000 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there is no missed rule, the comma is the only official decimal separator in these parts. But I can relate to the the OP. Us here in the comma world are forever converting numbers in CSV and Excel files back and forth so as to display them in a proper number format. It’s like that darned USB port, you have to flip it 3 times to get it right.

This should be the grand compromise. The US will convert to metric, however everyone else has to convert from commas to decimal points. Places using decimal separators and the metric system are the real winners here.

I'll celebrate for a whole week whenever the US converts to the metric system. I hope I'll still be young enough to handle it.
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