Mauna is the world's largest volcano
The volcano Mauna Loa ; located on the island of Hawaii, the world's largest active volcano; The elevation of the area above sea level is about 4 km. The area below water is about 5 km. The volcano is rooted under the sea floor about 8 km in the form of a reversed mountain; This brings the total length of the volcano from its base to its peak to about 17 km.
The Mauna Loa volcano occupies half of the island of Hawaii and began its formation a million years ago during which it experienced several eruptions, the last of which was in 1984; lava had poured in to within 6.5km of Hilo.
A Look at the Activity History of the Mauna Loa Volcano
The Mauna Loa volcano has seen several eruptions over the past three thousand years, with an average of one eruption every six years. It has also seen 33 eruptions since 1843; That is, at a rate of one eruption per five years, all of which were observed to have started at the top and half of which continued to be at the top, while the other half of the 17 eruptions that had rushed down from the volcano started at the top and continued to flow from the ventilation shafts, as well as in any other cracked area, resulting in lava coverage for a wide area at the foot of the volcano; The lava flowing from the fault northeast of Mauna Loa in 1855 and 1880 covered a large area of land currently under Helou, but was unable to reach the ocean.[3]The first was in 1975 when the volcano exploded and erupted for only one day, and the second in 1984 when the volcano exploded and erupted for three weeks. [4] It should be noted that Mauna's geological maps show that the new lava flows have contributed to covering the surface of the volcano, by 14% in 150 years, an area estimated at about 714.3 square kilometers
A view of the structure of the Mauna Loa volcano
The Mauna Loa volcano, with its outer structure, takes the form of a mountain extending in length and breadth, much like a shield; It is 97 km long and 48 km wide, and 9 km above the ocean floor; It is slightly taller than Mount Everest, and the volcano consists of a main crater called Moku3aweoweo, which has several faults distributed over three bands: North-east, north-west and south-west. The Mauna Loa volcano explosions have historically been known for their large flows, which have been able to reach great distances during their flow; Scientists believe the flows contributed over the past 4,000 years, covering 90% of the volcano's surface, mainly from the Northeast and Southwest regions, based on their being the most active throughout history; Although it has at least 30 slots.
Many people think that all volcanoes are conical peaks and usually explode to cause lava to fly through the air. However, the nature of volcanoes found in Hawaii is not the same, including Mauna Loa; They are classed as shale volcanoes formed gradually from lava flows from cracks in the volcano trunk, or from the earth's crust; As a result, the volcanoes spread out over a wide area and with a small slope in the sides, and their eruptions were gentle; scientists believe that the Mauna volcano was not formed about a million years ago as a result of lava flowing through a crack in the ocean crust; It cooled and formed a ridge on the ocean floor, and continued over the years to form an underwater mountain, and the mountain continued to rise above the sea, forming an island.