Another undersea volcano erupting in Tonga

NUKU‘ALOFA – Another volcano has begun erupting out of the Pacific Ocean near Tonga.

Few details are available but state-owned Radio Tonga says pilots for the domestic airline Real Tonga have been seeing a white cloud rising 600 metres out of the sea, southwest of the northern Vava’u Islands, near Late, an unoccupied volcanic island.

The area, on the western side of the Tonga Trench, is on the Pacific ring-of-fire, a seismically active band of fault lines through the region.

In December a large undersea volcano erupted near the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa. At several points its steam and ash blocked international air traffic.

That volcano has since stopped and the large island of ash it created is now washing away.