A Massive Underwater Volcano Literally Shook the Edge of Space

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano blew its top successful 2022, it wasn’t conscionable 1 of the astir almighty eruptions successful modern history—it virtually made waves successful space.

The detonation sent a towering plume of ash and state implicit 31 miles (50 kilometers) into the atmosphere, punching acold supra wherever commercialized jets cruise and astir upwind lives. But what truly blew scientists’ minds? The ripple effect didn’t halt there. It kept going—all the mode to the precocious atmosphere, wherever our satellites ellipse the planet.

A caller survey published successful AGU Advances explains however the gargantuan eruption managed to rattle a portion of the satellite astir volcanoes ne'er touch. Using outer information and atmospheric modeling, the researchers tested 2 culprits: lamb waves—pressure waves that “hug” Earth’s surface—and secondary gravity waves, which are generated erstwhile the archetypal question of, uh, waves, interruption isolated precocious successful the sky.

Simulations showing secondary gravity waves from the eruption. Graphic: Li et al. 2025

The researchers recovered that the secondary gravity waves were the culprit, arsenic their accelerated movements and larger magnitudes amended matched the outer information studied by the team. Basically, the Tongan eruption created a shockwave truthful aggravated it shook the sky.

The findings complement earlier probe showing that the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption gave disconnected a subtle seismic signature—a Rayleigh wave—before the eruption began, detectable by seismometers implicit 400 miles (644 km) away. That wave—imperceptible to humans—was a uncommon and overlooked hint that thing catastrophic was astir to happen. Together, these studies suggest that monolithic volcanic events don’t conscionable shingle the ground—they shingle the full atmosphere, from the seafloor to the borderline of space. Now scientists are realizing that Earth’s astir convulsive eruptions mightiness permission aggregate aboriginal fingerprints—if we cognize wherever (and when) to look.

The team’s survey is besides a reminder that what happens connected Earth’s aboveground tin adjacent perturb the borderline of space—a portion we progressively trust connected for communication, upwind tracking and climate modeling, and GPS. The amended we recognize however events similar this ripple retired from their sources, the amended we tin support the tech we beryllium connected to relation down here.