Photos: Mauna Loa Eruption Continues on Hawaii’s Big Island

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest lively volcano, started erupting in Hawaii in late November for the primary time since 1984. Eruptions have continued for practically two weeks, creating spectacular, slow-moving lava flows that to this point have not threatened any native communities.

Earlier this week, officers fearful that one of many lava flows would attain the Daniel Okay. Inouye Highway. But as of Thursday, the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory stated that’s not a priority, Hawaii News Now reported. Lava popping out one of many volcano’s fissures stopped feeding into the circulate that was shifting towards the freeway. No one on the island faces fast hazard from the lava flows, Hawaii Emergency Management tweeted on Thursday.

“Mauna Loa and the Hawaiian volcanoes typically produce very, very runny, very effusive eruptions,” volcanologist Jess Phoenix just lately advised Earther. “So we’re not worried about a giant explosion—essentially, what people imagine is the worst-case scenario in Yellowstone.”

According to Phoenix, some volcanic eruptions can go on for over a yr. The final time the Big Island volcano erupted was in 1984, and lava flows reached inside 4 miles of Hilo’s metropolis limits, in line with the U.S. Geological Survey. Mauna Loa is the largest of the five major volcanoes discovered on the Big Island, and it has erupted 33 occasions since fashionable information started in 1843. Its identify means “long mountain,” which is becoming as a result of it stretches about 10.5 miles from base to summit. It covers half of the surface area of Hawaii’s Big Island, in line with the USGS.

Signs of a possible eruption have been observed by the company in mid-September after the variety of earthquakes beneath the Mauna Loa summit elevated. The U.S. Geological Survey is monitoring the place the lava flows are going and how briskly they’re shifting. This eruption has seen lava spew 200 to 500 toes within the air, the U.S. Geological Survey tweeted.