MAUNA LOA

volcano, south-central Hawaii Island, Hawaii, U.S., and a part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (established as Hawaii National Park in 1916). One of the largest single mountain masses in the world, Mauna Loa (meaning long mountain) rises to 13,678 feet (4,169 m) above sea level. Its dome is 75 miles (120 km) long and 64 miles (103 km) wide, and its lava flows occupy more than 2,000 square miles (5,120 square km) of the island. Mokuaweoweo, its pit crater, has an area of nearly 4 square miles (10 square km) and a depth of 500600 feet (150180 m). Frequently snowcapped in winter, Mauna Loa has averaged one eruption every 3 1/2 years since 1832. Many of its eruptions are confined within Mokuaweoweo Crater; others are lower flank eruptions along northeast or southwest fissure zones. In the eruption of 1935, U.S. Army planes dropped bombs in the path of a lava flow that threatened Hilo. In June 1950 a 23-day flow from a 13-mile (21-kilometre) fissure in the southwest rift destroyed a small village. Substantial eruptions at the summit occurred in 1975 and 1984.