In 1983, a Canadian group helped rebuild traditional cooking houses in Tonga in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone. The Tonga Kitchens project offers lessons for Canadian aid today.
Tsunamis can be generated by underwater volcanic explosions thousands of miles away. The Jan. 15 explosion in Tonga resulted in tsunami advisories for British Columbia and all along the U.S. west coast.
A submarine eruption 34 nautical miles off the coast of Tonga’s capital, Nuku'alofa. March 18 2009.
EPA/Lothar Slabon
Tsunamis aren’t just bigger-than-average waves. Triggered by undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions like the one in Tonga, they are fast, massive and potentially destructive. Here’s why.
Satellite image of the Tonga explosion.
TONGA METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES/EPA
Future events could damage the critical portion of the undersea network which links to Australia.
Lava flows from a fissure in the aftermath of eruptions from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, May 22, 2018.
Andrew Richard Hara/Ena Media Hawaii via Getty Images
Volcanoes might seem like nature’s incinerators, but using them to burn up trash would be dangerous and disrespectful to indigenous people who view them as sacred.
Fadli Taha (45 years old) with a photo of his family in front of his house which was buried by hot clouds from Mount Semeru in Sumberwuluh Village, Lumajang, East Java, Tuesday 7 December 2021.
ANTARA FOTO/Zabur Karuru/foc.
To answer this question, it’s important to understand how PVMBG of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources classify the physical events of Semeru and the corresponding alert level.
The eruption in East Java that claimed 22 lives on Saturday was likely triggered by weather conditions rather than by internal unrest inside Mount Semeru, which would have been easier to monitor.
CNSA Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center
Volcanic Moon rocks collected by a Chinese probe last year are around 2 billion years old, a new analysis shows. That’s a billion years younger than those brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions.
A previously unknown filtering process inside some volcanoes can cause magma to shoot out like champagne from a bottle - and perhaps even make it easier to forecast when a volcano is about to erupt.
The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 sent volcanic dust and gases circling the Earth, creating spectacular sunsets captured by artists.
William Ashcroft via Houghton Library/Harvard University
Sonar scans of the Indian Ocean floor south of Christmas Island have revealed a Tolkeinesque landscape of towering peaks, ashen uplands and ominous volcanic craters.
The Toba eruption left behind a 100km long lake where the volcano had once been.
Clive Oppenheimer
When borders reopen, take an Aussie road trip and explore the continent’s unique geology, from meteorites in the Nullarbor Plain to rock formations that are billions of years old.