Second eruption as Tonga on alert
Nuku aLofa: Another “large eruption” has been detected at the Tonga volcano, a Darwinbased monitoring station said on Monday, two days after a massive eruption triggered tsunami waves around the Pacific.
The latest eruption was detected at 9.10am on Monday AEDT, according to an alert by the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre also said it had detected large waves in the area. “This might be from another explosion of the Tonga volcano. There are no known earthquakes of significant size to generate this wave,” it said.
The news came as Australia sent a surveillance aircraft to Tonga to assess the damage from Saturday’s huge undersea volcanic eruption, and as a tsunami threat along Australia’s east coast was cancelled.
There have been no official reports of injuries or deaths on Tonga, but communications with the tiny Pacific nation remain limited.
A massive ash cloud covering Tonga prevented surveillance flights assessing the extent of damage from waves that are believed to have inundated entire towns.
But on Monday morning, an Australian Defence Force P-8 Poseidon aircraft was pictured leaving Australia for Tonga to assess damage to critical infrastructure such as roads, ports and powerlines, which will determine the next phase of the response effort.
A C-130 aircraft has also been placed on standby but is awaiting assessment of the volcanic cloud which has stopped emergency flights landing.
“Australia will work in partnership with other Pacific neighbours, including New Zealand, to support Tonga in a Covid-safe way,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement. “While communications remain limited we are continuing to receive regular updates through our High Commission in Tonga, with early reports of substantial ash coverage around Nuku’alofa and coastal inundation and damage to infrastructure.”
The navy was due to deploy the largest ship in its fleet to Tonga. The HMAS Adelaide Landing Helicopter Dock, effectively a small aircraft carrier, is currently gearing up in Sydney’s Garden Island for departure to Brisbane for “preposition deployment” to Tonga.
The 230m-long vessel will collect humanitarian stores including fuel, food and water and other goods before making the eight-day voyage to Tonga.
The ship has huge humanitarian capacity with its helicopter airlift. It can carry at least eight helicopters, and was used during the Black Summer bushfires as well as in Fiji following the devastation caused there by a cyclone.
It comes as the NZ Defence Force announced early on Monday morning that an Orion aircraft had left for Tonga from Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously said the island nation’s capital had suffered “significant damage” and was smothered in dust.