Underwater volcanic eruption in Oceania caused biggest plume ever recorded

The powerful January 15 underwater eruption of Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in Oceania produced a plume that soared higher into the earth's atmosphere than any other on record - about 57 kilometres.

As Reuters reported, the white-greyish plume unleashed in the South Pacific archipelago became the first one documented to have penetrated a frigid layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere, halfway to space.

The plume was composed primarily of water with some ash and sulfur dioxide mixed in.

Previously the highest recorded volcanic plumes were from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, at 40km.