Over the weekend, the archipelago of Tonga shook the world, literally. That evening, the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, located about 40 miles from Tonga itself, erupted. The activity, which had been bubbling up for weeks, resulted in the underwater volcano sending massive clouds of ash more than 12 miles into the air — and that was just the beginning of an event that is posed to have both devastating short- and long-term effects in the Pacific and around the world.
The explosion on Saturday night turned out to just be the first of several major eruptions. The next came Sunday morning, when another large blast of ash made its way to the main island of Tongatapu, blocking out the sun in the process.
