Have I seen the WHAT?

When I got home from school yesterday, my landlady nonchalantly asked, "Daniel, have you seen the volcano?" I've been asked many unusual things nonchalantly in Tonga. "Would you like some dog?" topped that list, but here was a new contender.

"Ahhhhhh. No?" My brain struggled to imagine what volcano that I could see where and what exactly I was supposed to do when a volcano kaboomed. I knew there were two volcanoes in the Ha'apai island group, which I had visited last year. "Where...?"

"At the wharf." Now I knew it was a dream, because if there was a volcano at the wharf, then shouldn't I be dead? Or shouldn't it be hotter... But as I stood there with my jaw hanging open, my landlady went on to describe an underwater volcano that was spewing smoke and was visible from the wharf no more then a five minute bike ride from my apartment.

The volcanologist in me took over, I grabbed my camera, my bike, and sped to investigate. I guess I should have expected something like this. Tonga is on the legendary "Ring of Fire." We have so many earthquakes here I hardly even notice them anymore. I typically sleep through "major earth tremors" like the one on Monday that signaled the underwater eruption of this particular volcano.


It was cloudy, and what I saw was not quite what I had expected (I imagined Vesuvius reborn). But even still it was as awesome as I am. Maybe even twice as awesome. The volcano is about 10 km out from my island, and is shooting clouds of smoke, and steak into the air (which is being, luckily, then blown away from the island). Tomorrow (my Friday), officials will travel to the site to investigate.