Data collected from the tsunami affected small islands of ‘Atata, Malinoa and Fafa will be used for inundation forecast modeling for future volcanic tsunami events in Tonga.

Prof. Arikawa Taro, an environmental engineer from Chuo University in Japan collected the data with a team from the Tonga Geological Services, on 26 October.

The purpose of the site visit was to identify tsunami flow markers, photo-capture the affected areas using UAV drone, assess tsunami and volcanic deposits at the coastal area.

Prof. Taro, who was interested in investigating the volcanic tsunami impact on 15 January, focused on determining the tsunami height and arrival time at the coastal impacted areas. 

“The idea is to go out into the tsunami impacted sites and see for your own and get a good feel of what happened,” he said.

TGS stated that 'Atata, Malinoa and Fafa Islands were badly damaged by the tsunami with wave heights estimated to have reach 7m, 6.5m and 6m above sea level on each island respectively.

The site visit was a success and the data gathered will be used inundation forecast modeling for future volcanic tsunami events in Tonga.

The local team included ‘Ana Tupou, Nikolasi Heni, Pupunu Tukuafu and 'Aisake Niutoni.