Tongan volcano’s eruption unlikely to cool down climate change

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) believes the major natural disaster centred around Tonga will not contribute to Earth’s temperature cooling significantly.

Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai, a volcano about 30 kilometres south-east of Fonuafo’ou island in Tonga, erupted on Saturday evening, sending walls of tsunami waves through homes and streets. Communication with the Pacific nation has been patchy ever since.

In a statement, NIWA has said that the eruption “is unlikely to have a significant impact on global climate or change the direction of the global temperature trend.”

University of Auckland Volcanologist Shane Cronin told RNZ that early data suggests that the blast was the biggest in 30 years, likely causing scenes that would appear apocalyptic. The last earthquake that had such a massive eruption was Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines.

NIWA said that in 1991 Mt Pinatubo released 15 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. This resulted in the global temperature dropping by one degree Celsius for the following year and a half.

Currently, there are no indications of extreme levels of sulphur dioxide in the stratosphere, meaning that the Tonga eruption most likely won’t impact the planet’s temperature.

Sulphur dioxide is a natural by-product of volcanic eruptions, that can act as a pollutant and may be endangering those in Tonga.

Fiji’s government has cautioned residents to cover water tanks and stay inside, due to the danger of drifting sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere creating acid rain that may pour on Fiji’s islands.

NIWA cautions that sulphur dioxide from Tonga has also been picked up by Cyclone Cody.