The West Coast Is Under a Tsunami Warning After Violent Tonga Volcanic Eruption

The small island nation of Tonga has been hit by a volcanic eruption that has caused warnings to go up across the Pacific.

Satellite imagery shows a volcano exploding on Saturday. A cloud of ash appeared over the Pacific. The island nation had internet and cell phone problems. The outlet noted that people heard the boom as far away as New Zealand, as well as other places.

The capital of Nuku'aloFA was hit by a wave after the eruption. The wave reached a height of around 4 feet. There have been no reports of casualties so far. The sun is set to rise in the evening in Tonga, which will give officials a better chance to assess the damage, get the lights back on, and help residents in need.

The Pacific is Ringed by Tsunami Warnings.

The danger of waves is not limited to the shores of Tonga. People in Australia and New Zealand have been warned to avoid coastal areas. Lord Howe Island is a small part of New South Wales that sits around 350 miles off the coast. The entire east coast of Australia is under a marine threat due to dangerous rip currents, strong waves, and the possibility of flooding as water moves inland.

The West Coast and Hawaii have already experienced earthquakes.

Waves have arrived in some cases. In the early hours of Saturday local time, the National Weather Service reported that boats were washed onto docks and out of the water in Hawaii. The wave heights on Kauai were reported at 2.7 feet (0.8 meters) and more could come in the next few hours.

The local NWS office in Los Angeles reported that there was a wave as high as 2.5 feet. The NWS San Diego office warned that the waves would arrive in waves.

In the early hours of Saturday, parts of Alaska saw waves that were over 1 foot in height. These heights are still a major danger. Those who get too close can easily be overtaken by the waves. If you are in the alert zone, heed the warnings.

Dave Snider, the warning center's tsunami warning coordinators, told the AP that they don't issue an advisory for this length of coastline as they've done before. I hope that the severity of our citizens is elevated.

This is the latest eruption in the Volcanic Legacy.

A number of the world's most active volcanoes can be found in the Ring of Fire in the Pacific. The above-water parts of the volcano are relatively new. It emerged from the Pacific in the middle of a volcanic caldera. The volcano has grown.

The volcano was making noise in the month before the eruption. The volcano's steam and gases rose as high as 39,400 feet over the course of a week in 2021. As the calendar turned over, the satellite imagery showed those plumes.

The story will be updated.