Mauna Loa eruptions typically start in the summit caldera, and sometimes activity will relocate to either the Northeast or Southwest Rift Zone. Lavas erupted within the last 4,000 years cover almost 90 percent of the volcano’s surface, but not all Mauna Loa eruptions are identical. The island and the rest of its namesake archipelago are built from hot spot volcanoes, formed as a tectonic plate passes over a mantle plume - a hot buoyant bit of Earth’s mantle that melts as it rises upward, bringing magma to the surface.Īerial photos of lava flows moving downslope from fissures erupting on Mauna Loa’s Northeast Rift Zone, as taken from a Civil Air Patrol flight on the morning of Nov. Mauna Loa is just one of five volcanoes - Kohala, Hualālai, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Kīlauea - that make up the Big Island. Mauna Loa is so large that its weight presses down on the ocean floor, displacing the crust another 26,200 feet (about 8,000 meters). Although the summit caldera is located 13,679 feet (4,169 meters) above sea level, the base of the volcano meets the ocean floor another 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) below the ocean’s surface. With an estimated volume of 19,000 cubic miles (80,000 cubic kilometers), Mauna Loa accounts for more than half of the area of the Big Island and is the largest single volcano on Earth. This “sleeping giant” hasn’t always been quiet 29, 2022, as captured in this aerial photo. Geological Survey or the Hawaiian Department of Civil Defense.įire fountains and lava flows erupt from Fissure 3 on the morning of Nov. The most recent alert from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory advises there is currently no threat from lava flows to communities downslope of the Northeast Rift Zone, but because conditions during the beginning stages of an eruption can change rapidly, readers should stay tuned to information from the U.S. The newest fissure on the northeastern slopes of Mauna Loa is less than 24 hours old, seen here producing 10 meter (33 foot) tall fountains of lava the morning of Nov. According to Ken Hon with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, these new lava flows are following a similar path as flows from an eruption in 1935-1936 - but as is the nature of volcanism, nothing is set in stone, and we don’t know yet if the flows will continue to follow that path. 29), a small fourth fissure opened near Fissure 3, and as of Tuesday evening, advancing lava flows remained about 4.5 miles (7,200 meters) away from Saddle Road, the road that bisects the Big Island. The red arrow and dots mark the location of the lava flow, as of 1:30 p.m. In the morning, fissures at the upper part of the Northeast Rift Zone began to erupt, but by the afternoon only Fissure 3 remained active (purple line). The eruption began overnight with a fissure eruption on the caldera floor, and lava began spilling out the southwest side of the caldera. This map of the region surrounding Mauna Loa’s Moku’āweoweo Caldera shows the location of eruptive activity within the summit caldera and along the Northeast Rift Zone as of 1:30 p.m. Lava fountained as high as 200 feet (60 meters), but most of the fountains are only tens of feet (a few meters) tall. only Fissure 3 continued to erupt effusively. Activity at the first two fissures lasted for another few hours, and by 1:30 p.m. After seven hours of fissure eruptions in the summit caldera, activity relocated to the Northeast Rift Zone, where three fissures fed lava flows that traveled northward a few miles, and then stalled.
(09:30 GMT, ), marking the first eruption of Mauna Loa to be surveilled in near-real time using modern volcano monitoring techniques. 27, 2022, lava began erupting from a fissure inside of Moku’āweoweo Caldera at 11:30 p.m. Credit: USGS.Īfter 38 years of quietly overlooking its very active sister volcano Kīlauea, Mauna Loa volcano on the Island of Hawai’i (otherwise known as the Big Island) has reawakened. Lava flows are moving northeast down the slopes of Mauna Loa volcano for the first time in 38 years. Scruggs, M., 2022, Earth’s largest volcano has started erupting. Previous eruptions of Mauna Loa can give scientists some clues as to what this volcano has in store for Hawai’i.īy Melissa Scruggs, Ph.D. After months of heightened earthquake activity, Earth’s largest volcano has erupted for the first time in 38 years.
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