The sea turtle which travelled thousands of miles towards Tonga before changing course the day before a volcanic eruption has gone missing.
After being fit with a tracker so scientists could track their progress, Tilly, three, had recently been released into the waters near Australia and spent the next 47 days swimming east swimming more than 2,000 miles in 78 days.
On January 14 she suddenly turned around - 24 hours before Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai’s violent underwater eruption sent ash 60,000 feet into the sky, causing tsunamis devastating the islands.
However, the turtle's transponder suddenly stopped on February 17, and Sammy’s, Tilly's brother, tracker went offline after just 10 days.
Tilly also once swam towards the Great Barrier Reef, where she changed her path once more before a small earthquake shook north Queensland.
Jennifer Gilbert, of the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Center (CTRC), told IFL Science : “I'm going to do an observational paper.
“There has been nothing done on turtles and seismic detection previously.
“I don't think you could use turtles as a prediction device. You can't tell a turtle where to go, or even predict what they will do. They have a mind of their own.”
Previous studies have been published on the abilities of whales, dolphins and seals to detect potential seismic activity - but not turtles, according to Jennifer.
The devastating satellite images in the wake of the eruption showed a three-mile-wide plume of ash, steam and gas rising about 12 miles into the air.
The dramatic underwater blast sparked a tsunami, leaving at least three people dead and homes across the country damaged and was heard thousands of kilometres away and sparked warnings in New Zealand, Fiji, American Samoa and Australia.
