Monitoring and Modeling the Rapid Evolution of Earth's Newest Volcanic Island: Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai (Tonga) Using High Spatial Resolution Satellite Observations
Abstract
We have monitored a newly erupted volcanic island in the Kingdom of Tonga, unofficially known as Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai, by means of relatively frequent high spatial resolution ( 50 cm) satellite observations. The new 1.8 km2 island formed as a tuff cone over the course of a month-long hydromagmatic eruption in early 2015 in the Tonga-Kermadec volcanic arc. Such ash-dominated eruptions usually produce fragile subaerial landscapes that wash away rapidly due to marine erosion, as occurred nearby in 2009. Our measured rates of erosion are 0.00256 km3/year from derived digital topographic models. Preliminary measurements of the topographic expression of the primary tuff cone over 30 months suggest a lifetime of 19 years (and potentially up to 42 years). The ability to measure details of a young island's landscape evolution using satellite remote sensing has not previously been possible at these spatial and temporal resolutions.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- April 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1002/2017GL076621
- Bibcode:
- 2018GeoRL..45.3445G
- Keywords:
-
- surtseyan eruption;
- Tonga;
- Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai;
- very high-resolution satellite imagery;
- volcanism;
- remote sensing