Melbourne | Boats bashed into a quiet harbour in southern California, a remote island was battered in Japan by four-foot waves and two women were swept to their deaths on a beach in Peru – almost 1000 kilometres from an undersea volcanic eruption so powerful that the tsunami it set off churned ocean waters halfway across the globe.

But on Sunday (Monday AEDT), as reports of the volcano’s effect trickled in from far-flung countries, there was little word from Tonga, the island nation just 65 kilometres from the site of the extraordinary explosion.