Millán led a study examining the amount of water vapor that the volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

Millán and his colleagues’ found that the Tonga volcano sent around 146 tetragrams (1 tetragram equals a trillion grams) of water vapor into the Earth’s stratosphere.

The eruption came from a volcano that is more than 12 miles wide.

The researchers also noted how the water vapor could weaken the ozone layer that protects life on Earth from damaging radiation from the sun.