‘Equal to 100 atomic bombs’: NASA report on why Tonga eruption was so violent

10 days after the 21st century's most powerful volcanic eruption caused a tsunami around the island nation of Tonga in the Pacific, NASA has released its report. The NASA assessment found that the Tonga volcanic eruption was hundred times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 during World War II. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano hurled debris as high as 25 miles into the atmosphere, according to NASA Earth Observatory. As per NASA's preliminary estimate, the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT. On the other hand, a man from Tonga has now gone viral after he claimed that he swam for nearly 27 hours after being swept away in 4-feet tall waves that hit Tonga on January 15. The man who has difficulty walking, is being hailed on social media as the 'real-life Aquaman'. Meanwhile, India has announced immediate relief of $2,00,000 to tsunami-hit Tonga. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic island was two separate islands before the 15 January eruption, linked by a new land that was developed in 2015. The eruption was so powerful that it destroyed the new land as well as parts of the two older islands.