Alert as the world’s largest active volcano rumbles

Alert as the world’s largest active volcano rumbles

Subject: Geography

Context-

• Hawaii officials are warning residents of the Big Island that the world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, is sending signals that it may erupt.

About the Mauna Loa Volcano-

• Mauna Loa (Meaning: Long Mountain) is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean.
• The largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, Mauna Loa has historically been considered the largest volcano on Earth, dwarfed only by Tamu Massif.
• It is an active shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, with a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3), although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbour, Mauna Kea.
• The volcano makes up 51% of the Hawaii Island landmass, so a large portion of the island has the potential to be affected by an eruption.
• Mauna Loa, rising 13,679 feet above sea level, is a much larger neighbour to the Kilauea volcano, which erupted in a residential neighbourhood and destroyed 700 homes in 2018. Some of its slopes are much steeper than Kilauea’s, so its lava can flow much faster when it erupts.
• Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and they tend to be non-explosive.
• Mauna Loa has probably been erupting for at least 700,000 years and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago.
• Mauna Loa’s most recent eruption occurred from March 24 to April 15, 1984. No recent eruptions of the volcano have caused fatalities, but eruptions in 1926 and 1950 destroyed villages, and the city of Hilo is partly built on lava flows since the late 19th century.
• The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, which is part of the US Geological Survey, said Mauna Loa has been in a state of “heightened unrest” since the middle of last month when the number of summit earthquakes jumped from 10 to 20 per day to 40 to 50 per day.

Position of volcanoes on Hawaii island-