Mount Tavurvur, a volcano in Papua New Guinea, erupted this past August 29, spewing ash and causing a shock wave and resulting sonic boom. Phil McNamara, while in a boat near the New Guinea coast, caught the initial explosion of a volcano. Mount Tavurvur is known as a rather active volcano, one that caused many deaths and covered a nearby town in ash in 1994. Continue reading for the video and more information.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Jim Andrews, “The volcanic blast set off a shock wave, in which the air is instantaneously compressed then decompressed, radiating outward. What results is instantaneous warming, then cooling, of the air. It is the cooling that causes the very fleeting visible cloud of water droplets as the wave propagates through moist tropical air.”
