NASA: Tonga's Volcano More Powerful Than Hiroshima Atomic Bomb

The eruption of a volcano on the Pacific island of Tonga unleashed explosive forces that dwarfed the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists announced.

NASA indicated that the explosion was hundreds of times more powerful than the American atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945, which was estimated at about 15,000 tons of TNT.

The US space agency added that the volcanic eruption "destroyed" the volcanic island, which is located 65 kilometers away north of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

The NASA Earth Observatory said that the Hengja Tonga-Hungi Hapai volcano released lava up to 40 kilometers into the atmosphere during its eruption on January 15, which caused a huge tsunami, according to the website "phys.org".

"We believe that the amount of energy released by the eruption was the equivalent of five to 30 megatons (five to 30 million tons) of TNT," NASA scientist Jim Garvin said in a press release.

Because of the ash left by the volcano, it is forbidden for Tonga children to go out.

This massive eruption of the Tango volcano covered the island of about 100,000 people in a layer of toxic ash, poisoning drinking water, destroying crops, and killing at least the whole population in two villages.