More about the Tongan Volcano 

A correspondent thought that THIS WEB SITE would be of interest. Who knew that Tonga could be similar to Mars! The similarity is of volcanic landforms being eroded by water. And this is what the geomorphologist sees on Mars.

The article has a lot about the formation and erosion of the 2015 volcano and some fascinating video. 

A video covering much of the same material can be found HERE. 

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai in April, 2021

The Ultimate Geological Podcast 

A correspondent forwarded me an email from the maker of the Geology Bites podcast series - Oliver Strimpel. As I needed a podcast for a trip to the gym I had a look and was impressed by the people he was talking to. I listened to a few - Oman ophiolites, snowball earth, trilobites and was very impressed - the speakers certainly know what they are talking about. And Oliver Strimpel knows which questions to ask.

But I had the impression that they would love to show you a diagram or a cross section to really ram their discoveries home. So when I got home I went to https://www.geologybites.com and found that all you could want was there. 

This was especially true of Mike Searle on Ophiolite. Now I want to go to Oman and see for myself!

You can get the podcasts from the web page or from any podcast app.

 The Tongan Volcano

We have all heard about the volcano which has erupted near Tonga. HERE is a very interesting article by the geologist who has been working on the volcano for years.

The volcano has erupted repeatedly for a very long time. Before this weeks eruption it showed little above the surface - two tiny islands joined by the 2015 cone, and a couple of rocks to the south east. 

A massive underwater volcano lies next to the Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga islands. Author provided

The author (and others) reported on the 2014/15 eruption HERE. They were mainly concerned with how long the new island would last but they also looked at the geology of the area and they conclude that the new island marks one edge of a large submarine caldera.

And it was this caldera which produced the recent huge eruption.