Satellite images show a plume of discoloured water being emitted from the Kavachi Volcano, which lies about 15 miles south of Vangunu Island, on May 14.

NASA satellite images show a plume of discoloured water being emitted from the Kavachi Volcano, which lies about 15 miles south of Vangunu Island, on May 14.

Explosive volcanic eruptions like the one that devastated Tonga in January are not restricted to shallow water and can occur at depths of 'at least' one kilometre (1.6 miles), a study says?

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have discovered that underwater eruptions are much more powerful than first thought, able to shoot volcanic rock into the air at 'supersonic' speeds within seconds.

The summit of the volcano is currently estimated to lie 65 feet (20 metres) below sea level; its base lies on the seafloor at a depth of 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometres ). 

The frequent shallow submarine eruptions sometimes breach the surface, ejecting jets of steam, ash, volcanic rock fragments, and incandescent 'bombs' above the surface

The news comes after a huge eruption from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano in Tonga unleashed explosive forces equivalent to up to 30 million tonnes of TNT – hundreds of times more than Hiroshima's atomic bomb

Radar surveys before and after this month's eruption show only small parts remain of two Tongan islands above the volcano – Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai

Tonga's volcanic eruption in January produced the strongest recorded waves from a volcano since the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, scientists say. 

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, an underwater volcano in the South Pacific, created sound waves heard as far as Alaska 6,200 miles away when it erupted on January 15.