A violent volcanic eruption on a South Pacific island triggered a tsunami advisory and flooding in Hawaii and parts of the West Coast on Saturday morning.
Satellite footage showed a massive plume of ash and smoke and atmospheric shock waves following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano near Tonga on the evening of Jan. 14.
The boom was reportedly heard as far away as New Zealand (more than 1,200 miles away) and Anchorage, Alaska (more than 5,800 miles away). The ash plume reached up to 12 miles into the air, Tonga Geological Services reported, and dozens of coastal areas, from Japan to Chile, triggered tsunami warnings.
