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The Hunga Tonga underwater volcano was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, and now, two years later, new research from The Australian National University (ANU) has revealed its main trigger. The research is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Until now, the cause of the cataclysmic event has remained largely a mystery to the scientific community, yet a student-led team of ANU seismologists has been able to shed new light on the natural explosion that initiated the event.

The student researchers analyzed the climactic event's noisy but valuable seismic records to decipher its mysterious physical mechanism.

"Our findings confirm there was an explosion, possibly due to a gas-compressed rock, which released energy that equated to five of the largest underground nuclear explosions conducted by North Korea in 2017," study co-author and ANU Ph.D. student, Jinyin Hu, said.

"Our model suggests the event resulted from the gas-compressed rock being trapped underneath a shallow sea, like an overcooked pressure cooker.

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