Eruption near Tonga

[Matt Revington]

A volcano erupted near Tonga yesterday, tsunami warnings have been sent out around the pacific and Tonga itself has been hit by one. Niku is  a few hundred miles from the volcano and we'll with in the tsunami alert zone.  While I hope the damage to the populated islands is minimal there is alway a chance a tsunami could wash up/move around some evidence on a low lying atoll like Niku.
Pic of the tsunami waves rolling over Tonga's main island

[Ric Gillespie]

A tsunami emanating from Tonga should hit the southern coastline of Niku.  It could move things around, wash stuff up, and significantly change the southern lagoon passage, but there would be little danger of over-wash at the Seven Site.

[Bill Mangus]

Will be interesting to see what happens in the lagoon, especially if Bauareke Passage re-opens.  That might act to improve visibility in the lagoon after everything settles down.

[Ric Gillespie]

Will be interesting to see what happens in the lagoon, especially if Bauareke Passage re-opens.  That might act to improve visibility in the lagoon after everything settles down.

True.  During WWII Bauareke Passage was more open and the lagoon was reportedly quite clear. 

[Matt Revington]

Does anyone know often and when are satellite images of Niku are updated, either on google or other places?

[Bill Mangus]

Google Earth current image is dated 29 Apr 20.  Seems to be updated about every 2 years or so.  Depends on whether or not someone makes a specific request (and pays for it).

[Matt Revington]

I think that this zoom Earth view of Niku has been updated since the Tonga  eruption, clearly the area around tonga has been updated as half of the Tonga Hunga island has disappeared when compared to the pre-eurption google map images.  It looks like there was substantial wash over, the Bauareke Passage  has a fair amount of water in it and the area near the seven site also appears to be draining
https://zoom.earth/#view=-4.685394,-174.497151,18z

[Ric Gillespie]

If the images of Niku are from the same satellite image, they date from around 2010.  The current Google Earth image of Niku dates form 2020 and the Seven Site is completely grown-in.  The 2019 NatGeo team did not do much re-clearing of the site and it's now almost totally obliterated by scaevola.  Bauareke Passage changes daily based on the state of the tide.