Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is the world's largest active volcano, with its summit 20 miles away at an elevation of 13,677 feet above sea level and more than 31,000 feet above the ocean floor. With a volume of 10,000 cubic miles, it is the largest mountain on Earth. Its great mass has been built by successive flows of hot molten rock, or lava, and an individual lava flow averages 12 feet thick. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano, with gently sloping sides resembling an overturned warrior's shield, and Kilauea is also a shield volcano. It has taken hundreds of centuries and countless eruptions for Mauna Loa to reach its present size, and during the last 100 years, it has erupted more than 18 times, with the next eruption possible at any time.

Mauna Loa Estates, Hawaii · United States