1 of 3Photo: STR/EPA
When the waves after the volcanic eruption on Tonga reached Peru on the other side of the ocean, thousands of barrels of oil spilled into the ocean. The Peruvian government is now demanding compensation from the oil company.
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– This is the worst ecological disaster that has hit the area in recent times, and has caused serious damage to several hundred fishing families, it is said in a statement from the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairst on Twitter.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, located on an uninhabited island 65 kilometers north of the capital Nuku’alofa, had a violent eruption both Saturday and Sunday.
The eruption went about 30 miles into the air, and ash, gas and acid rain fell again over large parts of the Pacific region.
10,000 kilometers east, on the other side of the ocean, the waves from the eruption caused 6,000 barrels of crude oil to end up in the ocean, from a tanker that was in the process of delivering the oil to a refinery, according to Reuters.
Pictures from the site show entire beaches that are colored black by oil, and large numbers of dead soiled birds. Among the species affected is the endangered species humboldt penguin, which only lives in Peru.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the oil spill threatens both plants and animals in two protected areas with an area of more than 18,000 square kilometers.
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KILLING OIL: A cormorant – one of the many dead seabirds. 1 of 2Photo: Cristhian Meza / Municipality of Ventanilla HANDOUT
–The country’s Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez told according to The Guardian at a press conference on Wednesday that the refinery, which is operated by the Spanish oil company Repsol, apparently had not had a contingency plan ready for oil outbreaks. Peruvian authorities therefore demand that the company “immediately compensate for the damages”.
Repsol does not agree with:
“We did not cause this ecological disaster, and can not see who is responsible for it,” spokeswoman Tine Van Den Wall Bake told the Peruvian radio channel RPP Wednesday.
The eruption in Tonga made an impact all over the world, was audible all the way to Alaska and the tsunami hit coastlines from Japan to the United States.
These satellite images show the Nuku’alofa area of Tonga before and after the volcanic eruption:
In Tonga, the eruption resulted in a tsunami wave of 1.2 meters. The first Australian emergency aid plane left Australia early Thursday, and is on its way to Tonga. A New Zealand plane is also on its way.
Four people have been confirmed dead, and the destruction on several islands is massive.
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Eruption: Satellite image of the volcano Hunga Tunga Hunga Ha’apai, taken by the Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8, Saturday 15 January. Tonga’s contact with the outside world has been severely limited, as a submarine communication cable was destroyed in the volcanic eruption. On the ground, people have worked very hard to remove volcanic ash from the runway at the airport in the capital Nuku’alofa, so that emergency aid could land.
More ships and aircraft with emergency aid going to the island state, but it is still expected to take a while.
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