20 Facts About Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U S state of Hawai?i 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.

Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and they tend to be non-explosive.

Mauna Loa has been monitored intensively by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory since 1912.

Mauna Loa is one of five subaerial volcanoes that make up the island of Hawai?i.

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Mauna Loa is a typical shield volcano in form, taking the shape of a long, broad dome extending down to the ocean floor whose slopes are about 12° at their steepest, a consequence of its extremely fluid lava.

The shield-stage lavas that built the enormous main mass of the mountain are tholeiitic basalts, like those of Mauna Loa Kea, created through the mixing of primary magma and subducted oceanic crust.

Mauna Loa's summit is the focal point for its two prominent rift zones, marked on the surface by well-preserved, relatively recent lava flows and linearly arranged fracture lines intersected by cinder and splatter cones.

Mauna Loa has complex interactions with its neighbors, Hualalai to the northwest, Mauna Kea to the northeast, and particularly Kilauea to the east.

Kilauea lacks a topographical prominence and appears as a bulge on the southeastern flank of Mauna Loa, it was historically interpreted by both native Hawaiians and early geologists to be an active satellite of Mauna Loa.

When Kilauea lay dormant between 1934 and 1952, Mauna Loa became active, and when the latter remained quiet from 1952 to 1974, the reverse was true.

Mauna Loa lacks its neighbor's summit permafrost region, although sporadic ice persists in places.

Oldest exposed flows on Mauna Loa are thought to be the Ninole Hills on its southern flank, subaerial basalt rock dating back approximately 100 to 200 thousand years.

Activity centered on its summit are usually followed by flank eruptions up to a few months later, and although Mauna Loa is historically less active than that of its neighbor Kilauea, it tends to produce greater volumes of lava over shorter periods of time.

Mauna Loa has not erupted since, and as of 2021, the volcano has remained quiet for over 35 years, its longest period of quiet in recorded history.

Mauna Loa has been designated a Decade Volcano, one of the sixteen volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to populated areas.

Thomas A Jaggar, the Observatory's founder, attempted a summit expedition to Mauna Loa to observe its 1914 eruption, but was rebuffed by the arduous trek required .

Eruptions on Mauna Loa are almost always preceded and accompanied by prolonged episodes of seismic activity, the monitoring of which was the primary and often only warning mechanism in the past and which remains viable today.

Mauna Loa has a tropical climate with warm temperatures at lower elevations and cool to cold temperatures higher up year-round.

Location of Mauna Loa has made it an important location for atmospheric monitoring by the Global Atmosphere Watch and other scientific observations.