Overview
- The open-access Nature Communications study reports that methane in the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai plume converted into formaldehyde and then into carbon dioxide and water.
- Researchers tracked record formaldehyde in the cloud for about 10 days as it drifted toward South America, which indicates ongoing methane destruction during that period.
- The team estimates the eruption released about 330 gigagrams of methane, while reactions in the plume removed roughly 900 megagrams per day.
- Scientists link the rapid breakdown to chlorine atoms formed when seawater mixed with iron-rich volcanic ash and sunlight, a pathway similar to one seen when Saharan dust meets sea spray.
- Using ESA’s Sentinel‑5P TROPOMI instrument with adjusted analysis, the team demonstrated that satellites can verify methane breakdown, a tool that could help assess cautious, still-unproven methane-removal ideas that carry measurement and environmental risks.