Where is Mauna Loa?

• Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.

• It’s not the tallest (that title goes to Mauna Kea) but it’s the largest and makes up about half of the island’s land mass.

• Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago.

• In written history, dating to 1843, it’s erupted 33 times.

• Mauna Loa has a much larger magma reservoir than Kilauea, which may allow it to hold more lava and rest longer between eruptions than Kilauea.

• Hawaii volcanoes like Mauna Loa tend not to have explosion eruptions.

• That’s because their magma is hotter, drier and more fluid.

• The gas in the magma of Hawaii’s volcanoes tends to escape, and so lava flows down the side of their mountains when they erupt.

• Hawaii’s volcanoes are called shield volcanoes because successive lava flows over hundreds of thousands of years build broad mountains that resemble the shape of a warrior’s shield.