In further studies on the Tonga submarine eruption on January 15th last year, 2022, we know it produced a plume that consisted of a lot of water vapour that went way up into the stratosphere. However, it also produced 590,000 lightning strikes, it is estimated at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05012-5 … [and see https://phys.org/news/2023-01-solid-earth-atmosphere-interaction-hunga-tonga-hunga.html … ] There were also ground motions, downward reaction forces from jetting at the submarine vent, as well as magma reservoir deflation. It was picked up by seismic monitors worldwide, as seismic waves echoes around the solid earth. Fascinating. The power of the eruption simultaneously produced the lightning strikes we are told, in the ionosphere and atmosphere.
Tonga Eruption and Lightning
28 January 2023Catastrophism, Electromagnetism, Geology