Researchers say that astronauts visiting the moon could drink water thanks to an unlikely source: Ancient volcanoes.

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder published its findings this month that suggests volcanoes may have left sheets of ice that dot the moon’s poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even hundreds of feet thick.

“We envision it as a frost on the moon that built up over time,” said Andrew Wilcoski, lead author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the university.

The researchers said they discovered that ancient moon volcanoes spewed huge amounts of water vapor, which then settled onto the surface—forming stores of ice that may still be hiding in lunar craters. They added that if any humans had been alive at the time, they may even have seen a sliver of that frost near the border between day and night on the moon's surface.

The researchers said that in order to access the ice, it would require some drilling as lunar dust has likely covered it.

The eruption this month of an underwater volcano near Tonga was hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to NASA.

Video above: Tonga Eruption Was So Explosive It Sent Atmospheric Gravitational Waves Into Space

Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano on Jan. 15 released "hundreds of times the equivalent mechanical energy of the Hiroshima nuclear explosion," referring to one of two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan during World War II.

"This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT," Garvin said on NASA's Earth Observatory website.

In comparison, scientists estimate the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption released 24 megatons of energy, and Krakatoa — one of the biggest volcanic events in history — erupted in 1883 with 200 megatons, according to NASA.

The eruption near Tonga sent volcanic material surging as high as 25 miles into the atmosphere and generated tsunami waves up to 49 feet high that hit parts of the archipelago including the Pacific nation's main island.

A volcanic cloud extended to cover all of the country's roughly 170 islands, according to Tonga's Prime Minister, impacting the entire population of more than 100,000 people.

Garvin and a team of international researchers evaluated changes in land mass of the volcano since 2015, when an eruption connected two pre-existing islands, Hunga Ha'apai and Hunga Tonga, into one land mass.

Following the eruption this month, all of the new land has gone along with "large chunks" of the two pre-existing islands, the researchers said.

The eruption and tsunami killed at least three people, destroyed hundreds of homes and left remote islands cut off from the world with no communications. Photos show entire island communities blanketed by thick volcanic ash and debris.

Aid agencies and Tongan politicians warned of potential food shortages after crops were ruined by the ash as rescue workers raced to deliver safe drinking water to the islands.

The first contactless aid flights arrived in Tonga last week, with the coronavirus-free nation taking precautions to keep the virus out.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — 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.

The eruption on Saturday sent tsunami waves swirling around buildings and people rushing to higher ground. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage because all internet connectivity with Tonga was lost.

Following the eruption, a tsunami advisory was issued for Japan, Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast.

Authorities in Southern California closed beaches and piers as a precaution.

The Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano is located about 40 miles north of Tonga's capital.

Video posted to social media shows large waves washing ashore in coastal areas, swirling around homes and buildings. Satellite images show a 3-mile-wide plume of ash, steam and gas rising up into the air 12 miles high.

Tonga's King Tupou VI was reportedly evacuated from his palace near the shore, among the many residents who headed for safety.

About 105,000 people live in Tonga.

A series of eruptions in 2014 and 2015 disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or the extent of the damage as communications with the small nation remained problematic. Video posted to social media showed large waves washing ashore in coastal areas, swirling around homes and buildings.

New Zealand's military said it was monitoring the situation and remained on standby, ready to assist if asked.

Satellite images showed a huge eruption. The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was in effect for all of Tonga. Authorities in the nearby island nations of Fiji and Samoa also issued warnings, telling people to avoid the shoreline due to strong currents and dangerous waves.

The Islands Business news site reported that a convoy of police and military troops evacuated Tonga's King Tupou VI from his palace near the shore. He was among the many residents who headed for higher ground.

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

A Twitter user identified as Dr. Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau posted video showing waves crashing ashore.

“Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent,” he wrote, adding in a later post: “Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky.”

Earlier, the Matangi Tonga news site reported that scientists observed massive explosions, thunder and lightning near the volcano after it started erupting early Friday.

The site reported that satellite images show a plume of ash 3 miles wide, along with steam and gas rising up into the air to about 12 miles.

More than 1,400 miles away in New Zealand, officials were warning of storm surges from the eruption.

The National Emergency Management Agency said some parts of New Zealand could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a large volcanic eruption.”

Late Saturday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat to American Samoa appeared to have passed, although minor sea fluctuations could continue.

The volcano is located about 40 miles north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Back in late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

Tonga is home to about 105,000 people.

TODOQUE, Canary Islands —

A volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands kept nerves on edge Friday for a fifth day since it erupted, producing loud explosions, a huge ash cloud and cracking open a new fissure that spewed out more fiery molten rock.

The archipelago’s emergency services ordered the evacuation of scores of people from three villages on the island of La Palma and ordered residents to stay indoors in another. Already this week, almost 7,000 people have had to leave their homes. The prompt evacuations are credited with helping avoid casualties.

Loud bangs from the volcano’s mouth sent shock waves echoing across the hillsides. Explosions hurled molten rock and ash over a wide expanse. As a precaution, emergency services pulled back from the area.

Regional airline Binter temporarily halted flights due to a huge ash cloud that rose almost 4 miles into the sky.

More encouragingly, Spain's National Geographic Institute said it hadn’t recorded any earthquakes in the area for 24 hours, after registering 1,130 over the past week amid intense seismic activity before and after the eruption on the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge.

Also, the advance of the main river of lava slithering toward the sea slowed to about 3 feet per hour.

Both of the main lava flows are at least 33 feet high at their leading edges and have been destroying houses, farmland and infrastructure in their path since Sunday.

The lava has destroyed almost 400 buildings on La Palma, including many homes, on the western side of the island of 85,000 people, a European Union monitoring program said.

It said the lava stretches over almost 20,000 square feet and has blocked 9 miles of roads. Islanders make a living mostly from farming and tourism, and some may lose their livelihoods.

On a visit to La Palma, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a package of measures to help get the island back on its feet and "rebuild lives."

The Spanish government will provide aid for rebuilding homes and public infrastructure, such as roads, irrigation networks and schools, as well as relaunching the island’s tourism industry, Sánchez said. He did not say how much money would be made available but said a Cabinet meeting next week would provide more details.

Scientists say the lava flows could last for weeks or months.

EL FUERTE, Spain (AP) — Giant rivers of lava are tumbling slowly but relentlessly toward the sea after a volcano erupted on the Spanish island of La Palma off northwest Africa.

The lava is destroying everything in its path Monday. But prompt evacuations helped avoid casualties after Sunday's eruption.

Scientists had been monitoring the area in recent days amid a surge in mostly small earthquakes.

The lava was moving at 2,300 feet per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute.

Officials said they expected it to reach the Atlantic Ocean around sunset.

The lava left black swathes of destruction through the sparsely populated, green countryside and destroyed around 100 houses.

Officials have warned that part of the island’s southwest coast was at risk for landslides and rock falls.

The last eruption on La Palma occurred 50 years ago and lasted over three weeks, The Associated Press found.

Watch the video above to see the stunning images of the eruption.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano on Spain's La Palma island is continuing to expel molten lava and ash after erupting on Sunday and is likely to do so for days, the president of the Canary Islands regional government warned Monday.

Angel Victor Torres added in a post on Twitter that there had been no reports of injuries or deaths so far.

The Canary Islands emergency services tweeted late Sunday that 5,000 people had been evacuated from the area nearest to the eruption.

That figure included 400 tourists evacuated from a hotel on La Palma and taken to a hotel on the nearby island of Tenerife, Torres told Spanish radio station SER in an interview.

After a night of spectacular images of the lava illuminating the island's countryside, Torres told SER that experts believe there is still just one point of eruption from the volcano, near a "lightly populated" part of the island, which has a population of about 80,000 people.

Footage from the island showed at least one highway cut by a wall of lava; local officials said some houses had been damaged.

Officials have warned local residents to keep their distance from the eruption.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed solidarity with the people of La Palma in a Twitter post on Monday. She added that "we are in contact with Spanish authorities to offer any additional aid that is needed."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has remained on La Palma, one of the smaller islands in the Canary Islands archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Morocco, after rushing there on Sunday.

Following the delay of his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Sanchez and other officials on Monday toured an evacuation center. He was later able to get a closer look at the volcano and its destruction.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute (Involcan) wrote in a statement on Facebook on Sunday that more than 25,000 earthquakes had been detected in the previous nine days around the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

Spanish news reports said the last major eruption from the volcano was 50 years ago.

The regional president said some 400 firefighting personnel were in place to battle any fires caused by the lava flows.

Spain's Ministry of Transport tweeted that it had prohibited ships from sailing too close to the volcano because of the risks posed by lava flowing into the sea.

The Canary Islands are a popular tourist destination for British, German and other European visitors.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An explosive eruption has rocked La Soufriere volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent.

The eruption followed mandatory evacuation orders from the local government.

The director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Center says the ash column rose as high as 6 miles.

The island’s emergency management office on Thursday ordered evacuations.

People are to be put aboard cruise ships and head for nearby islands or shelters elsewhere in St. Vincent.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) — La Soufriere volcano has fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate.

Experts called it a "huge explosion" that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano's south and southwest flanks early Monday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center, said, "it's destroying everything in its path."

Experts have urged those who are still living near the volcano to leave immediately.

The AP reported that roughly 16,000 people have already evacuated.

According to The AP, there are no immediate reports of injuries or casualties, but officials are responding to the latest eruption, which is bigger than the first.

NYIRAGONGO, Democratic Republic of the Congo —

The eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo volcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo seems to have subsided late Saturday, according to the Goma Volcano Observatory, which monitors the volcano.

Still, authorities have activated an evacuation plan for the nearby city of Goma. The volcano's last major eruption in 2002 killed 250 people and displaced thousands.

Volcanologist Honore Chiraba from the Goma Volcano Observatory told CNN there are two fractures in the volcano. Chiraba is following the volcanic activity closely with the governor of North Kivu, the province where the city of Goma is located.

He said even though the volcanic activity seems to have subsided late Saturday, officials will evacuate Goma as a precaution.

"The lava is flowing but not very fast," Chiraba said. "At this stage, we don't think anyone is injured but we can't know for sure."

Chiraba said that the country's border with Rwanda is closed. A government source earlier told CNN Rwanda is monitoring the volcanic eruption and is forming a plan in case people start crossing the border into Rwanda following evacuations.

The current metro area population of Goma is 670,000, according to a projection by the U.N.

Patrick Kakesa from the International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO) said in a statement at 11 p.m. the lava appears to be flowing towards the border with Rwanda.

"In the event of an evacuation, customs between Goma and Gisenyi are closed overnight," he said.

The NGO has advised humanitarian workers living in the Munigi camp a short distance from Northern Goma to move to villages further to the west.

A reconnaissance flight by a UN helicopter on Saturday appeared to show the lava was not flowing toward Goma or any major population centers, the UN peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO said in a statement.

The eruption started around 6 p.m. on Saturday, according to INSO.

"As a precaution, INSO strongly advises humanitarian workers in the city to prepare for a possible evacuation," Kakesa said. "It is recommended that others wait at home for the situation to evolve. INSO continues to monitor the situation and updates will be sent by email."

A post on the verified Twitter account of the British Embassy in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Saturday, "Nyiragongo volcano, close to city of Goma, began erupting this evening. Current assessments indicate eruption doesn't threaten the city itself. All should remain vigilant & Brits concerned should reach out to us ... We continue to monitor the situation closely."

The 11,500-foot-high volcano is one of several near the DRC's border with Rwanda and Uganda, an area of tropical rain forest and rare mountain gorillas.

Goma is on the edge of Lake Kivu on the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda.