Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii. It is the largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume. Its magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna LoA away from the hotspot.
About Mauna Loa in brief
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, dwarfed only by Tamu Massif. The volcano’s magma comes from the Hawaii hotspot, which has been responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian island chain over tens of millions of years. The slow drift of the Pacific Plate will eventually carry Mauna LoA away from the hotspot within 500,000 to one million years from now, at which point it will become extinct. 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 from the late 19th century. It has probably been erupting for at least 700,000 years, and may have emerged above sea level about 400,000 years ago. At 1 million to 700,00 years of age, MaunaLoa is the second youngest of the five volcanoe on the island. It makes up more than half of the surface of the island of Hawai i. Mauna Loa spans a land area of 5,271km (2,271 miles) and has a maximum maximum width of 120km (80 miles) It rises to 9,170m from the base to the summit, greater than the 8,848m (29,029 feet) elevation of Mount Mauna Kea.
The oldest volcano on the Island, Kohala, is more than a million years old, and Kīlauea, the youngest, is believed to be between 300,000 and 600,000 year of age. Lōʻihi Seamount on the island’s flank is even younger, but has yet to breach the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It’s estimated that the volcano’s volume is approximately 18,000 cubic miles (4,170 m) or 29,000 feet (8,029 metres) or 4,170,170 feet (1,590 meters) above the sea floor. It was created as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over the Hawaiihotspot in the Earth’s underlying mantle. The Hawaii island volcanoes are the most recent evidence of this process that, over 70 million years, has created the 3,700 mi -long Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. The most recent eruption occurred from March 24 to April 15, 1984. Because of the potential hazards it poses to population centers, the volcano is part of the Decade Volcanoes program, which encourages studies of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes. It also has an extensive submarine flanks and 4,200-meter (9,170-metre) deep subsurface flanks. Its peak is about 125 feet lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea.
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This page is based on the article Mauna Loa published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
