GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Where a volcano produces low viscosity, runny lava, it spreads far from the source and forms a volcano with gentle slopes: a shield volcano. Most shield volcanoes are formed from fluid, basaltic lava flows. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are shield volcanoes.

Detailed explanation-2: -Like all Hawaiian volcanoes, Mauna Loa was created as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over the Hawaii hotspot in the Earth’s underlying mantle. The Hawaii island volcanoes are the most recent evidence of this process that, over 70 million years, has created the 3, 700 mi (6, 000 km)-long Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain.

Detailed explanation-3: -Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on the planet. Meaning “long mountain” in Hawaiian, it is the quintessential shield volcano in its shape-signified by broad, rounded slopes. The volcano makes up roughly 51% of Hawaiʻi Island and stands 13, 681 feet (4, 170 m) above sea level.

Detailed explanation-4: -Mauna Loa is the world’s largest shield volcano. Because its lava is extremely fluid (it has low viscosity), and its slopes are not steep, Mauna Loa is shaped like a shield. Eruptions are rarely violent, and the most common form is in the Hawaiian style, which involves lava fountains feeding lava flows.

Detailed explanation-5: -Mauna Loa is among Earth’s most active volcanoes, having erupted 34 times since its first well-documented historical eruption in 1843. It has produced large, voluminous flows of basalt that have reached the ocean eight times since 1868.