After a strong undersea volcano erupted on Sunday, cutting off connections to the Pacific nation's outer islands, the fate of thousands of Tongans remained uncertain.

According to officials, tsunami waves in the capital, Nuku'alofa, washed vessels and big stones into the coast. In addition to the islands being blanketed in a heavy layer of volcanic dust, the shops along the coast were also destroyed.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his worry for Tonga's citizens on Twitter and said that the country "stands ready to support our Pacific neighbors" as they work to recover from the effects of a volcanic explosion and tsunami.

Members of the Washington Youth Preparedness Council for FEMA Region 10 offer some advice.

Hello, 2022! Many people in Washington are making their best New Year's resolutions as the new year approaches. They may have plans to stop watching streaming TV at home and start going to the gym more frequently, organize their messy home office, or start eating more healthy greens after recently bingeing on holiday treats and candy canes. All of these are excellent resolutions, but they can also be difficult to keep. So let me suggest another resolution for you, one where even the smallest effort will improve your situation.

Nearly 5,000 earthquakes have been registered since the Reykjanes peninsula's Fagradalsfjall earthquake swarm started on Tuesday evening. Southwest Iceland could clearly feel the sixth M4 earthquake since Tuesday at around 5:00 this morning.

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Northern California reportedly shook a substantial area of the state shortly after noon local time, according to data from the US Geological Survey.

The earthquake occurred just off Cape Mendocino, close to Humboldt County, and was felt as far away as San Francisco and Chico, both in California.
It began slowly before increasing up speed, according to William Honsal, the sheriff of Humboldt County, in a statement to CNN. "We haven't had a quake like this since 2010."

The Blanco Fracture Zone earthquake cluster off the coast of Oregon is a part of a wider active system of faults, underwater volcanoes, and actively expanding ridges that increases the likelihood of a significant earthquake along the Pacific Northwest coast.

On November 11 at 04:32 UTC, the 8.5-magnitude Vallenar earthquake of 1922 took place in Chile's Atacama Region close to the Argentina border. It created a catastrophic tsunami that was seen as far away as Australia and seriously damaged Chile's coast.

The earthquake occurred in a site where the South American and Nazca tectonic plates are convergent at a pace of 70 millimeters per year.

Since the Paleozoic, Chile has been located at a convergent plate boundary that causes massive earthquakes (500 million years ago). Along this plate boundary, the Chilean coast has seen numerous megathrust earthquakes throughout history, including the largest earthquake ever recorded. The boundary most recently broke in central Chile in 2010.