Essay On Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is the biggest active shield volcano in the world. At 30 miles long and 60 miles wide it makes up a little over half of the Hawaiian island that it rests on. Historically it has erupted once every six years, however the last eruption was in 1984 and was one of the most violent eruptions recorded for Mauna loa. It rises 13,448 feet above sea level, but if measured from its base at the bottom of the ocean this volcano is three fourths of a mile taller than even mount Everest. Its name “Mauna Loa” means long mountain in the native language. Since it is a shield volcano its eruptions tend to be much more calm than that of a strato volcano. This is because of the type of lava that shield volcanoes put out. Instead of a thick slow moving

Rift zones are simply large channels or scars on the mountain that open up when magma pushes its way towards the top of the mountain. These rifts make for quite spectacular eruptions as many times lava shoots out of them like a fountain or oozes out of them like blood from a cut depending on the pressure built up underneath the surface. Mauna Loa is also well known for the effusive style of eruption that comes from the mountain. The weight of this massive lava spitter has caused the section of oceanic crust that it sits on to sag down about eight kilometers below the rest of the plate that being stated the actual size of this volcano is about seventeen kilometers high from the base below the ocean to the top which reaches to the clouds. Just for comparisons Mount Everest is only about nine kilometers high from its base to the top. Mauna Loa is one of the most active volcanoes erupting thirty-three times since its first documented eruption in 1843. The mountain itself has a density of eighty-thousand square