Check out this fantastic footage of Papua New Guinea's Mount Tavurvur ejecting untold heaps of lava, rock, and ash hundreds of meters into the air. Between the striking burst of clouds above the volcano and the jarring boom of the delayed shockwave, this is one of the most dramatic eruption videos we've ever seen.
The video was captured by Phil McNamara while vacationing with his wife Linda, who posted the video to her Facebook page earlier this week. You'll want to watch this one in full screen, HD, with the sound on. That last part's important; don't forget the sound:
Taking into account the speed of sound and the considerable delay between sight and sound of the explosion, a back of the napkin calculation puts the boat from which this footage was shot roughly 4.4km (~ 2.7 miles) from the volcano. Keep that in mind as you watch the pyroclastic debris, clearly visible in the video, trace a slow parabola against the scene's cloudy backdrop. Those chunks of raw geology are immense, and they're hurtling through the air much faster than their lazy arcs would suggest.
Holy smokin' toledos, indeed.
H/t Mika!
