MAUNA LOA

Mauna Loa ("long mountain" in Hawaiian) is the highest volcano in the world. Culminating at 4,170 m, it rises 17,000 m above its base which sinks into the ocean floor. The emerged part (527 100 hectares) represents more than half of the surface of the island. With Mauna Kea it forms the largest volcanic mass on the planet. The volcano is crowned by a large caldera and crossed by two rifts from which the vast majority of lava flows. Since 1843, 33 eruptions (on average one every five years) have been intensively studied. On the night of June¹, 1950, Mauna Loa, which had been dormant for eight years, suddenly began to spew lava more than 70 m high, through a 20 km fissure on its southwestern slope. The molten material, which progressed at nearly 10 km per hour, reached the sea in less than 3 hours and sank 800 m into it. The eruption lasted 23 days and caused only a few damages in a village. The most impressive thing was the 460 million cubic meters of lava collected on the surrounding slopes, enough to cover a four-lane road four and a half times around the earth. And, in 1984, an eruption nearly swallowed the town of Hilo under the lava! But Mauna Loa has been in a deep sleep for years... The road that leads to the summit of Mauna Loa begins at an altitude of 2,000 m, about 22 km from the administrative center of the park. It winds for 28 km between lava banks punctuated by piles of rocks.