Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
The explosive submarine Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption of January 2022 is famous for its large volcanic plume that lifted nearly 60 kilometers into the mesosphere and for its tsunami that caused fatalities as far away as Peru. The eruption’s boom was heard even as far as Alaska (10,000 kilometers away), and the barometric pressure disturbances of this boom were tracked globally as it continued to circle the earth.
Using records from a large number of barometric and water well monitoring stations across China (see figure above), He et al. [2025] demonstrate a strong correlation between the boom’s pressure pulse and ground water levels. High permeability reservoirs displayed an immediate response. The responses in low permeability aquifers were, however, more muted. This work is notable in that it highlights a clear coupling between strong atmospheric pressure events to pressures within confined aquifers.
Citation: He, A., Liu, Y., Zhang, F., Zhang, H., Singh, R. P., & Wang, Y. (2025). Large-scale groundwater system characterization using pressure responses to barometric perturbations caused by the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130, e2025JB031616. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JB031616
—Douglas R. Schmitt, Editor, JGR: Solid Earth
Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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