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With the meteor strike of Chelyabinsk, the dashcams did document it well - probably less of them in use in Tonga then in Russia :p. But one should hope that at

by _ph_ 5y ago

With the meteor strike of Chelyabinsk, the dashcams did document it well - probably less of them in use in Tonga then in Russia :p. But one should hope that at least some smartphone was directed at the vulcano, especially as it had erupted the day before.

ceejayoz 5y ago
The horizon is ~3 miles away. The volcano is 40 miles away from Tonga. The ash plume would be visible, but not the eruption; any close-in monitoring equipment would a) be destroyed and b) probably not be live streaming, but collecting to an SD card.
- Maursault 5y ago
  > The horizon is ~3 miles away. Interesting, then, that standing on a beach it is possible to see ships 12mi out to sea. I think your distance-to-horizon source may be inaccurate, but it does not affect the validity of your excellent point.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    It's not that interesting, it's just math. A little height goes a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon#Examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon#Examples The island simply wasn't high enough to be observed from Tonga. We've got video of the shockwave hitting Tonga - https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/01/15/tonga-video-captures-enormity-of-shockwave-boom-after-eruption/ https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/01/15/tonga-video-captures-enor... - but video of the eruption itself would've surfaced by now if available.
    - Maursault 5y ago
      Yes, of course, I acknowledged your point while demonstrating that the horizon is considerably more than 3mi away.
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        "The horizon is approximately three miles away for an average-height non-blind human at sea level looking out to sea and assuming there are no low clouds, fog, or rogue waves involved" is a lot longer to type out, and probably unnecessary.