NUKU‘ALOFA – A large volcanic eruption is taking place near Tonga’s capital’s Nuku‘alofa sending ash and steam high into the sky.

It is the same undersea volcano which erupted out of the Pacific Ocean, 63 kilometres north of Nuku’alofa in 2009, creating an island.

Matangi Tonga reports the eruption is clearly visible from the main island of Tongatapu.

New Zealand’s Metservice has yet to issue any aviation warning in the region, despite the large plume of ash.

Known as the Hunga Ha‘apai volcano, Matangi Tonga says it may have been erupting for more than a week.

The eruption was first reported by a fisherman who came back from the area on December 19, according to the deputy secretary of Lands and Natural Resources, Taniela Kula.

Authorities did not issue an alert at the time and were waiting for visual confirmation.

It first started erupting violently in March 2009. People at the time were told not to go near it. The volcano sits on the edge of the Tonga–Kermadec Trench with runs from Samoa through Tonga and down the New Zealand east coast.

A continuing eruption from Tonga’s active undersea volcano, Hunga Ha’apai, is this week clearly visible on the horizon northwest of Tongatapu.

Photographed by local Shane Egan from the Kanokupolu coastline, a plume of steam can be seen standing out clearly against the blue sky.

“It’s been puffing away like a steam train since Christmas Eve,” said Egan. “It’s Tonga’s own white Christmas.”

He said the eruption may have started earlier but it was hard to see against the heavy clouds on the horizon before Christmas.

Deputy secretary of Lands and Natural Resources, Taniela Kula, told Matangi Tonga: “A response has not been declared to the eruption on Hunga Ha‘apai. We wrote a report but we found no correlations in the seismic data – so we need more visual data.”

He said that the eruption would be producing material and they were returning to work to assess the situation.

“We are supposed to provide a warning to aviation with Tonga Met,” he said.

In March 2009 the volcano erupted explosively and produced a small island.

At the time Paul Taylor of the Australian Volcanological Investigations, who studies Tonga, warned people not to get too close to eruptions.

“To get too close when the volcano is still considered very active, is extremely unwise. Volcanoes are unpredictable as they may not give any warning signs that eruptive activity is going to occur. Furthermore, the landforms produced during explosive activity remain unstable for a long period and are very susceptible to collapse,” he said.

The 2009 eruptions created impressive “rooster tail” explosions as erupting lava interacted with seawater at shallow water depths. An new island was born during that eruption, but such ocean islands rarely last if they are mainly made from explosive volcanic debris (tephra) that is easily washed away by wave action.