Tonga (CU)_After conducting a preliminary examination of the underwater Tongan volcano, which erupted violently back in January, a robot boat operated from the UK has returned.
The undersea Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HTHH) volcano’s caldera is being mapped in part by the Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer.
The second phase of the Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP), directed by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) and funded by the Nippon Foundation of Japan, is being conducted by the vessel, which was created by the British company Sea-Kit International.
The information gathered thus far supports earlier indications of ongoing volcanic activity from HTHH. The boat has a winch that enables equipment to be lowered to depths of up to 300 meters in order to gather data from the whole water column.
Even though the 12-meter-long Maxlimer is in Tonga, it is being remotely managed in the Essex coastal town of Tollesbury, which is 16,000 kilometers distant. Every action is carried out via satellite link.
Images from the 10 cameras on board Maxlimer are shown on many enormous screens in a dark control room at Sea-Kit’s headquarters. Real-time data is transmitted in from the South Pacific as operators who work in shifts around the clock observe.
According to Ashley Skett, director of operations at Sea-Kit, the operators can even converse over radio with other boats in the region, thus the other boats wouldn’t be aware that anyone was on board Maxlimer.
“The boat has been designed from the ground up to be remotely controlled and remotely operated. So, every switch, every function on the boat, every light, we can control from here.”
The future of maritime operations is likely to involve robotic, remote-controlled boats. Remote control ensures that no crew members are put in danger when surveying a hazardous region, such as the active HTHH volcano.
USVs are also advantageous for the environment. The vessel can be considerably smaller because there is no personnel on board to support, which lowers carbon dioxide emissions.
“We use 5% of the fuel that an equivalent manned vessel doing the same job that we’re doing now would use,” Ashley said.
The HTHH eruption in January sparked a large tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean and inflicted major damage well beyond Tonga. The eruption sent an air shockwave as far away as the UK. While some bad weather is currently moving across the area, Maxlimer is taking a brief break. The boat will return to the underwater volcano once the weather is better so it can finish drawing its map of the caldera.
The information gathered will aid in our comprehension of the eruption’s causes and aid in our ability to anticipate the characteristics of upcoming eruptions.
