[Rockhounds] Tonga volcano triggered seafloor debris stampede

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

*Last year's Tonga volcanic eruption produced the fastest underwater flows
ever recorded, scientists say.*

Huge volumes of rock, ash and mud were clocked moving across the ocean
floor at speeds of up to 122km/h (75mph).

These "density currents", as they're known, snapped long sections of
telecommunications cabling, cutting the Pacific kingdom's link to the
global internet.

They also smothered and killed all sealife in their path.

It's another example of the prodigious scale of the 15 January eruption.

The underwater volcano called Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai is already in the
record books for:

   - the height of its eruption plume, which rose half way to space
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60088413> (58km)
   - producing the biggest atmospheric disturbance
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61452860> in
   instrumented history
   - triggering the most intense lightning storm
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63953531> - 2,600
   flashes per minute

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66731845