All you need to know about the Mauna Loa volcano. Memo to Hawaiian tourists

The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning volcanoes is destruction, disaster and human sacrifice. Recall at least the death of the city of Pompeii, flooded with the glowing streams of Lava Vesuvius. However, with the development of civilization, mankind no longer succumbs to primitive fears, but thinks rationally, which allows scientists to use volcanoes as an inexhaustible source of untamed, wild geothermal energy. Moreover, it was in the volcano, according to one of the theories, that life was born, because the water shell, the earth's crust, and the atmosphere are mostly created from products of volcanic activity.

Location and geological structure

Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on Earth in the ratio of volume and area. It is located on a large Hawaiian island, in the Pacific Ocean. Latitude and longitude of the Mauna Loa volcano: 19 ° 28'46 "N, 155 ° 36'09" W. E.

In Hawaiian, the name of this volcano sounds like a "high mountain". It is an active volcano, one of several that form Hawaii:

• Mauna Loa.
• Hulalai.
• Kilauea.
• Haleakala.
• Loiha.

The first three are neighbors on the Big Hawaiian Island, Loiha is a young sea volcano, and Haleakala is on the island of Maui. The height of the Mauna Loa volcano is 4 km 169 m. The approximate volume is 75 000 km ³ .

Mauna Loa has the form of a shield, for its lava is extremely liquid, which does not allow the formation of high slopes.

Extremely interesting is the nature of the eruptions: at the very beginning there is a split, from which the lava flows along the entire length, it takes several days, and at the very end, activity can only be observed in the ventilation holes.

This "gushing" type of eruptions is a visiting card of volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands.

How did Mauna Loa appear?

All volcanoes of Hawaii - Mauna, Hulalai, Kilauea, Loiha and Haleakala - have a common source of origin. Right under the islands is an access point, in which the column of magma rises directly from the earth's mantle.

This access point magma has existed for more than ten million years, it is she who decides the creation of the island chain. While the point is in a static position, the Pacific plate constantly drifts and moves about 10 cm per year for about a year. Because the plate moves, the volcano leaves further from the magmatic column, and when it is finally shifted, the volcano will go out.

Activity History

During the study of the volcano, rocks dating back 200,000 years were found. However, the researchers believe that it erupted much earlier than this time: at least more than 700,000-800,000 years ago. The very first ascent of Mauna Loa was made in 1794.

The nature of recent eruptions is not very harmful. For example, the eruption of 1987 did not bring any casualties, although before the activity of Mauna Loa, entire villages were being carried away (the city of Hilo, for the most part, stands on the petrified streams of lava that descended here in the 19th century). Recently, the smaller Kilauea volcano shows much more activity, so the main attention of tourists is so far focused on it.

The most frequent cases of Mauna Loa eruptions were recorded in such parts of the mountain as:

• Summit (almost 40% of all eruptions);
• The expanding rift zone in the northeast;
• The expanding rift zone is in the south-west of the summit.

Since 1912 Mauna Loa is under the vigilant control of the volcano's observatory, where scientists observe both atmospheric vibrations and the National Park "Hawaiian volcanoes", which occupies the summit and covers the whole southeast side.

Volcanoes and tourism business in Hawaii

The ocean coast, hot sand, the scorching sun ... It's all fine, but have not you seen it hundreds of times already, and is it worth it to spend your vacation in Hawaii? In addition to Hawaiian guitar, surfing and dancing around the campfire, Hawaii is also a volcanic archipelago.

If earlier it was almost impossible, now you can see the most hidden, fascinating places of the islands, literally look into the mouth of Mauna Loa. The height of the location of individual panoramic places is so great that the excursion includes the ascent of helicopters.

The most interesting excursions on the islands can be called:

• A journey through the Big Island of volcanoes;
• Walking on the Lava tubes;
• A panorama of Waikiki;
• Kilauea National Park;
• Museum of volcanology;
• Lava fields, observation of the eruption and bathing with sea turtles on the beach of black lava;
• Trip to the National Park "Haleakala Volcano" on the island of Maui, ascent by helicopter to the height of the crater (3 km).

All these excursions are combined and can include several Hawaiian attractions at once. It is, of course, worth remembering that if a flight to another island is included in the tour, it will take a whole day.