Lava fountains 200 feet high erupting from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano

Mauna Loa, which reaches an elevation of 13,679 feet above sea level at its summit, is the largest land-based volcano on the planet.

The mountain is an example of shield volcano — so named because the runny, non-explosive nature of the magma that formed it resembles a large shield on the ground.

Geologists believe that Mauna Loa has been erupting for at least 700,000 years — peaking about the sea surface some 400,000 years ago — fuelled by magma from the underlying Hawaii hotspot, which is responsible for the creation of the whole Hawaiian archipelago.

Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984, when a narrow flow of ʻAʻā — a basaltic lava that formed a rough of rubbly surface as it cools — passed within four miles of Hilo, close enough for the glow from the molten rock to illuminate the town at night.

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1703807/hawaii-mauna-loa-volcano-eruption-lava-flow-fountain-earthquake-usgs