The recent eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga was the biggest recorded anywhere on Earth in the past 30 years. A series of before-and-after satellite images highlight the extent of damage to the volcanic island and the neighboring region.
The new images come courtesy of Maxar Technologies, a space-tech firm based in Westminster, Colorado. Maxar’s satellites collect high-resolution imagery of more than 1.35 million square miles (3.5 million square kilometers) each day, making it possible to compare surface features across short timescales. The newly released images of the Tonga volcano and its aftermath are all standard electro-optical images and have not been processed in any special way.
