Why Tonga volcanic eruption is so violent

The World

t sounds counterintuitive that an underwater volcano could produce the explosion and shockwaves that accompanied the eruption in Tonga. Shouldn’t the water mitigate the damage somehow? Well, it turns out there’s a scientific reason behind the power of this sort of blast. Marco Werman speaks with Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who has studied the Tonga volcano up close.

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