Abstract: "Rapid and high-impact journal publications are pivotal for career advancement in the current 'publish or perish' academic climate. In geosciences, such publications often follow catastrophic events like asteroid impacts, global tsunamis, and supervolcanic eruptions. One notable event, the explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) volcano on January 15, 2022, led to six rapid publications in Nature and Science submitted within 2.5 months of the event, and over 200 papers indexed in Web of Science Core Collection in 2022 and 2023. This study quantifies their bibliometric variables and compares them to the bibliometric variables of other catastrophic events like global tsunamis, meteorite impacts, and climate extremes published in 2022. Additionally, survey of corresponding authors assessed opinions on various aspects of publication strategies. Findings reveal that HTHH-related articles experienced significantly faster evaluations and higher citation rates than on other topics, even in top-level letters geosciences journals such as Geophysical Research Letters. Most surveyed researchers viewed rapid publications as beneficial for career advancement but acknowledged the heightened risk of research misconduct. This study highlights the need for balancing the pursuit of knowledge dissemination and career progression with maintaining research integrity and advancing the understanding of Earth systems."