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Last year's Tonga volcanic eruption produced the fastest underwater flows ever recorded, say a team of international scientists. Huge volumes of rock, ash and mud were clocked moving across the ocean floor at speeds of up to 122km/h (75mph). These "density currents", as they're known, snapped long sections of telecommunications cabling, cutting the Pacific kingdom's link to the global internet. They also smothered and killed all sea-life in their path. The underwater volcano, called Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai, erupted on January 15 2022. Dr Mike Clare from the UK's National Oceanography Centre was a co-lead author on the report. He told Newsday: “In terms of implication, it’s important for understanding threats to sea floor cables, which currently carry more than 99% of all digital traffic worldwide…This really exposes a blind spot in our understanding of underwater volcanos of which two thirds of the world’s volcanos actually lie under the sea and we have no monitoring.” (Picture: Shows a satellite image of an explosive eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano on the 15th January 2022. Credit: Tonga Meteorological Services via Reuters.)