Home Science Mauna Loa’s continuing eruption is spectacular in satellite views

Mauna Loa’s continuing eruption is spectacular in satellite views

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Mauna Loa’s continuing eruption is spectacular in satellite views

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Satellites keep watching as the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island continues spewing geysers of boiling lava and plumes of toxic volcanic ash over a week after it woke up from a nearly 40-year sleep. 

The volcano, whose peak stands 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean, rises from depths of over 3 miles (5 km) under the sea surface, making it the highest volcano in the world. This giant had previously been active on average every five years, but had laid dormant since 1984. This lengthy sleepy period ended abruptly on Nov. 27, when a new fissure opened in Mauna Loa’s summit caldera, or crater, and began spurting walls of lava into the height of up to 150 feet (40 meters). 



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