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Tsunami-hit Tonga remains largely uncontactable with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through.

An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves and evacuation orders on the shores of Tonga as well as several South Pacific islands, where footage on social media showed waves crashing into coastal homes.

Internet and phone lines went down at about 6.40pm local time on Saturday, leaving the 105,000 residents on the islands virtually uncontactable.

There are no official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga as yet on Sunday although communications are limited and contact has not been established with outlying coastal areas beyond the capital Nuku'alofa and closer to the volcano, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference on Sunday.

Tonga, an island nation with around 105,000 residents, lies 2383 kilometres northeast of New Zealand.

"Nuku'alofa is covered in thick plumes of volcanic dust but otherwise conditions are calm and stable," Ardern said.

"There are parts of Tonga where we just don't know yet... we just haven't established communication," she said.

Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption on Saturday as the explosion sent plumes of smoke into the air and about 12 miles above the sea level. The sky over Tonga was darkened by the ash.

Concerns were growing among the Tongan community in New Zealand, desperate to make contact with their families back home. Some churches organised community prayers in Auckland and other cities.

"We pray God will help our country at this sad moment. We hope everybody is safe," Maikeli Atiola, the Secretary of the Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Auckland said, Radio New Zealand reported.

Ardern said the main undersea communications cable has been impacted, likely due to loss of power.

Power was being restored in some areas on the islands and local mobile phones were slowly starting to work, she added.

Official damage assessments were not yet available, she said, but the New Zealand high commission in Nuku'alofa had told her the tsunami has had a significant impact on the foreshore on the northern side of Nuku'alofa, with boats and large boulders washed ashore.

"Shops along the coast have been damaged and a significant cleanup will be needed," she said.

Australia said it will send a P8 surveillance aircraft to Tonga on Monday to assess damage to critical infrastructure such as roads, ports and power lines, which will determine the next phase of the response effort.

In the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the country stands prepared to provide support.

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades but Saturday's eruption was so loud that residents parts of faraway Fiji and New Zealand said they heard it.

Rumblings and eruptions from the volcano continued to be heard through the night, Ruggiero said. Hundreds of people were moved to evacuation centres in Suva. Fiji Airways had to cancel all its flights due to the ash clouds.

"This is the worst disaster Tonga has had in living memory and the recovery from this is going to take years," Ruggiero said.

Experts said the ash fallout could contaminate drinking water and cause respiratory issues.

The eight-minute eruption on Saturday triggered tsunami warnings and evacuations in several countries. The eruption caused flooding across portions of coastal Alaska and California in the United States.

Floods from the tidal waves were also reported in Chile, some 10,000 kilometres away, and hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were advised to evacuate as waves of more than a metre hit coastal areas.

© DPA 2022

Tsunami-hit Tonga remains largely uncontactable with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through.

An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves and evacuation orders on the shores of Tonga as well as several South Pacific islands, where footage on social media showed waves crashing into coastal homes.

Internet and phone lines went down at about 6.40pm local time on Saturday, leaving the 105,000 residents on the islands virtually uncontactable.

There are no official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga as yet on Sunday although communications are limited and contact has not been established with coastal areas beyond the capital Nuku'alofa, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference on Sunday.

Tonga, an island nation with around 105,000 residents, lies 2383 kilometres northeast of New Zealand.

"Nuku'alofa is covered in thick plumes of volcanic dust but otherwise conditions are calm and stable," Ardern said.

"We have not yet received news from other coastal areas," she said.

Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption on Saturday as the explosion sent plumes of smoke into the air and about 20km above the sea level. The sky over Tonga was darkened by the ash.

Concerns were growing among the Tongan community in New Zealand, desperate to make contact with their families back home. Some churches organised community prayers in Auckland and other cities.

"We pray God will help our country at this sad moment. We hope everybody is safe," Maikeli Atiola, the Secretary of the Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Auckland, was quoted as saying by Radio New Zealand.

Ardern said the main undersea communications cable has been impacted, likely due to loss of power.

Power was being restored in some areas on the islands and local mobile phones were slowly starting to work, she added.

Official damage assessments were not yet available, she said. But Ardern said the New Zealand high commission in Nuku'alofa had said the tsunami has damaged boats, shops and other infrastructure.

An Australian government spokesperson said initial assessments are still underway but Australia is ready to provide support to Tonga if requested.

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades but Saturday's eruption was so loud that residents parts of faraway Fiji and New Zealand said they heard it.

"My entire house was shaking," said Sanya Ruggiero, a Consulting Communications Advisor based in Suva, the capital of Fiji, some 750km from Tonga.

"My doors, windows were all rattling like hell. And mine was not even as bad as others. Hundreds of people ran out of their homes," said Ruggiero, who consults for several agencies including the United Nations.

Rumblings and eruptions from the volcano continued to be heard through the night, Ruggiero said. Hundreds of people were moved to evacuation centres in Suva. Fiji Airways had to cancel all its flights due to the ash clouds.

"This is the worst disaster Tonga has had in living memory and the recovery from this is going to take years," Ruggiero said.

Experts said the ash fallout could contaminate drinking water and cause respiratory issues.

"Help will be needed to restore drinking water supplies. People of Tonga must also remain vigilant for further eruptions and especially tsunami with short notice and should avoid low lying areas," said Shane Cronin, professor at the School of Environment, University of Auckland.

The eruptions triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, with the United States urging people on its Pacific coastline to stay away from the shores and Australia's New South Wales region closing beaches.

Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were advised to evacuate as waves of more than a metre hit coastal areas.

© DPA 2022

The tsunami threat around the Pacific from a huge undersea volcanic eruption has begun to recede, while the extent of damage to Tonga remains unclear.

Satellite images show the spectacular eruption that took place on Saturday evening, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters.

A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska.

In Tonga it sent tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground.

The eruption cut the internet to Tonga, leaving friends and family members around the world anxiously trying to get in touch to figure out if there were any injuries and the extent of the damage.

Even government websites and other official sources remained without updates on Sunday afternoon.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there had not yet been any official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga, but cautioned that authorities had not yet made contact with some coastal areas and smaller islands.

"Communication with Tonga remains very limited. And I know that is causing a huge amount of anxiety for the Tongan community here," Ardern said.

She said there had been significant damage to boats and shops along the Tongan coastline.

The capital, Nuku'alofa, was covered in a thick film of volcanic dust, Ardern said, contaminating water supplies and making fresh water a vital need.

Aid agencies said thick ash and smoke had prompted authorities to ask people to wear masks and drink bottled water.

Ardern said New Zealand was unable to send a military surveillance flight over Tonga on Sunday because the ash cloud was 19,000 metres high but they hoped to send the flight on Monday, followed by supply planes and navy ships.

One complicating factor to any international aid effort is that Tonga has so far managed to avoid any outbreaks of COVID-19.

Ardern said New Zealand's military staff were all fully vaccinated and willing to follow any protocols established by Tonga.

Dave Snider, the tsunami warning co-ordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said it was very unusual for a volcanic eruption to affect an entire ocean basin, and the spectacle was both "humbling and scary".

The tsunami waves caused damage to boats as far away as New Zealand and Santa Cruz, California, but did not appear to cause any widespread damage.

Snider said he anticipated the tsunami situation in the US and elsewhere to continue improving.

Tsunami advisories were earlier issued for Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, Alaska and the US Pacific coast.

The US Geological Survey estimated the eruption caused the equivalent of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for the whole archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami center said waves of 80cm were detected.

Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau, who chairs the New Zealand Tonga Business Council, said she hoped the relatively low level of the tsunami waves would have allowed most people to get to safety, although she worried about those living on islands closest to the volcano.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter he is "deeply concerned for the people of Tonga as they recover from the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and tsunami. The United States stands prepared to provide support to our Pacific neighbours."

Tonga gets its internet via an undersea cable from Suva, Fiji. All internet connectivity with Tonga was lost about 6.40pm local time.

On Tonga, which is home to about 105,000 people, video posted to social media showed large waves washing ashore in coastal areas and swirling around homes, a church and other buildings.

The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano was the latest in a series of dramatic eruptions.

Earth imaging company Planet Labs PBC had watched the island in recent days after a new volcanic vent there began erupting in late December.

Satellite images captured by the company show how drastically the volcano had shaped the area, creating a growing island off Tonga.

Following Saturday's eruption, residents in Hawaii, Alaska and along the US Pacific coast were advised to move away from the coastline to higher ground.

In Santa Cruz, California, officials were taking stock of damage after a surge damaged boats and inundated low-lying streets and parking lots, sending cars afloat.

In southern California, surging waters sunk at least one boat in Ventura Harbor northwest of Los Angeles.

New Zealand private forecaster Weather Watch tweeted that people as far away as Southland, the country's southernmost region, reported hearing sonic booms from the eruption.

Others reported that many boats were damaged by a tsunami that hit a marina in Whangarei.

Satellite images showed a 5km-wide plume rising about 20km after the eruption began early on Friday.

© DPA 2022