Peru demands compensation for disastrous oil spill caused by Tonga volcano

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Peru opens probe of oil spill blamed on Tonga volcano and tsunami

Peruvian prosecutors opened an investigation into a unit of Spanish energy firm Repsol (REP.MC) after an oil spill at a local refinery blamed on unusually large waves from the weekend volcano eruption and tsunami in Tonga 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) away.
The South American country’s environmental minister gave the La Pampilla refinery two days to identify the critical points of the spill and to collect within 10 days the oil that affected kilometers of coastline.

About volcanic event

The explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano last Saturday was the biggest volcanic event recoded anywhere in the world in over three decades,
For the volcano itself, it was a once-in-a-thousand-years event.
Situated in the Kingdom of Tonga in the Pacific Islands, the volcano has sunk under the ocean; its vent (opening) was already submerged before the eruption.
The eruption produced an ash cloud 260-km wide and rising up nearly 39km into the sky, by early estimates.
Within the cloud were electric storms that produced up to 400,000 lightning strikes in three hours.
The volcanic eruption also triggered a tsunami causing waves over a metre high across the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, as well as the west coast of North and South America.
This was the first instance of a volcanic eruption causing an ocean-wide tsunami in the Pacific instead of an earthquake.
The tsunami waves were also unusual in their characteristics

A massive shockwave followed the eruption and was observed from space in stunning satellite imagery.
The wave was recorded in seismometers around the globe — including in distant Alaska, over 9,000km away.
The eruption has downed an undersea communication cable that it is estimated will take two weeks to fix, leaving citizens of Tonga in a communications blackout.
Some domestic telephone lines have been restored, but the thick ash deposit from the explosion is making it difficult for planes carrying aid to land.

Tonga and other Pacific Islands, including Fiji, also experienced 2-metre-high waves that destroyed settlements and houses.
The coastlines of some islands have been submerged, while multiple uninhabited islands in Tonga have gone completely under.
The ash deposit from the eruption is expected to cause environmental damage for a few years.
After blocking out the sun in Tonga, the cloud has since started to disperse, moving over Australia and into the Indian Ocean, but no global climate impact is expected.
The eruption has been the most powerful eruption since that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. What caused the sinking of the volcano is still unclear. Because the volcano is remote, and is now underwater, performing observations close-up has been difficult for volcanologists.
The eruption event itself is still ongoing and more eruptions cannot be ruled out

Unfamiliar Eruption

The now-submerged volcano is located between the two islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai in the Kingdom of Tonga. The region sits on top of the Ring of Fire, a tectonically active horseshoe-shaped region that runs along the east of Australia and NZ, along South-East Asia and Japan, along the Bering strait, and down the west coast of the Americas. These regions produce the majority of volcanism and earthquakes on the planet due to tectonic plates interacting with each other.
Tonga sits on top of a fault or intersection, where the Pacific plate is sinking under the Australian plate.
This process, known as subduction, causes warm water in the sinking plate to rise up and mix with magma, making it viscous. This traps a lot of the heated water as bubbles, building up pressure, and leading to eruptive events.
It is still unclear what triggered an explosion of this magnitude, but superheated magma at over 1,000 degrees C rising up to come in contact with shallow oceanic water at 20 degrees C intensified it.

Shockwave seen from space

The explosive eruption produced a shockwave that was clearly observableon satellite images. This shockwave travelled across the globe at the speed of sound, and was recorded around the world as both a pressure wave and an acoustic signal.
Most instruments globally recorded the shockwave twice, one from the direction closest to Tonga, and the other from the opposite direction, due to the part of the wave emanating from the other side of Tonga.
The accompanying sonic boom was recorded in many places, and reached Alaska, over 9,300 km away, after seven hours.

Acid rain

Since the initial eruption, the volcano has been releasing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide — two gases that create acid rain when they interact with water and oxygen in the atmosphere.
With Tonga’s tropical climate, “there is likely to be acid rain around Tonga for a while to come,” said volcanologist Shane Cronin at the University of Auckland.

Fish die- offs

Tonga’s exclusive economic zone of nearly 700,000 marine square kilometres is 1,000 times larger than its land area.
And most Tongans get their food — and livelihood — from the ocean.

How Peru got impacted severely?

the oil spill had occurred after a ship had been rocked by unusually large waves as it had been unloading crude oil to the La Pampilla Refinery, owned by Spain’s Repsol.
On the weekend two people also drowned in Peruvian beaches, which was blamed on the unusual waves.
A black mass of crude oil could be seen in the water extending some 3 km along the shoreline and affecting the beaches of three coastal districts, which was causing maritime contamination, killing birds and ocean microorganisms.
Fines could reach up to $33 million if responsibility for environmental damage were proven,
The National Institute of Civil Defense stated that they already have the spill under control.
The Pampilla Refinery, said there had been “limited spill”,
it has deployed containment barriers covering the affected areas and the crude was being collected according to protocol.
“Work is being done to return the coastal area to its original state. More than 200 people divided into crews with specialized equipment are carrying out remediation work on Cavero, Bahía Blanca and Santa Rosa beaches

Controlling oil slicks is critical to protecting sensitive areas

Booms are floating physical barriers, made of plastic, metal or other materials, which slow the spread of oil and keep it contained. A boom may be placed around a tanker that is leaking oil, to collect the oil, or along a sensitive coastal area to prevent oil from reaching it.