Mauna Loa

[PaulW]

Yikes!

Most of Puna is safe from Mauna Loa, right? If so, why is that?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Mauna Loa opened up in a fissure eruption 12 miles long... in the middle of the night... starting around 9pm & making it to HWY 11 by midnight.. the ocean 35 minutes later... by morning had bisected HWY11 in 2 separate locations

You had me at fissure eruption.

Seriously Carey, that is the singular most frightening piece of information I've ever read on Punaweb. County officials have a lot of gall to dismiss Puna residents concerns about Kilauea because we should have known better when we bought our properties.

We look like geniuses compared to folks who live with the shadow of Mauna Loa looming in their backyard.

[alaskyn66]

Kilauea is a child... She can only do so much damage..
Mauna Loa is the mother/adult.. Never underestimate what damage can be done.

[Carey]

Kilauea and Mauna Loa flows interlace [somewhat, around] the east rift of Mauna Loa...so I doubt any of the HVO geologists would agree that Puna is "safe" from Mauna Loa flows....however most do tend to flow towards Hilo...

This county (the whole island) is on totally active volcanoes... One must ALWAYS remember that Haleakala (Maui) erupted in the 1790s & filled in a bay that had been noted on the Cook expedition's maps as a decent anchorage...

90% of total land area of Kilauea has been covered by lava flows since humans first arrives ~1500 years ago, and 60% of Mauna Loa, and a little of Haleakala...

To feel that one is totally safe while living on an active volcanic island chain is probably not the most aware way to handle life...

To realize one is not totally safe & have a plan, just in case something may happen, is the best way, I have found, to live at peace on this dynamic island chain... which is always moving...sailing at the speed of your fingernails growth, towards the NW...

[Ino]

Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on Earth and the 10th tallest mountain in the solar system;
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na...51/?no-ist

Check out #2 it's the second tallest mountain and it's on an asteroid- Rheasilvea Mons- Did you know there's an asteroid named Hilo;
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?orb=1;s...;cad=0#orb

One would be wise to monitor this volcano and I follow the earthquake swarms here and recently they do appear to be getting closer to the surface;
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/maunaloa...uakes.html

Another site where an eruption could be spotted first and Alerts issued is here;
http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/cgi-bin/modis/modisnew.cgi

To understand the alerts go here;
http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/contents.html

Check out previous days on the right column as you can see the hot spot comes and go with the lava flow near Pahoa!

Another place to monitor;
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/current/...toring.php

Webcam-it's rainy up there today;
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cams/panorama.php?cam=MLcam

Myth busting;
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/view.php?id=220

We have enough to worry about but I agree with Carey that it is prudent to keep informed when living on Earth's largest active volcano.

[missydog1]

Thank you for all those links! And Carey, as always, has great info.[]

A lot of HOVE is on the southwest rift zone, and the land there is very cheap. It sounds like some here just zoomed in on Puna when they planned a move, and didn't investigate the whole island?

We looked pretty much everywhere on the island, so we looked at all the historic flows and the history of each volcano. There have been articles in West Hawaii Today for years about the danger to human life and property on the southwest rift zone, so this is not new alarm. People who live on it are or should be aware of the risk.

The worst denial on the island, IMHO, is the North Kona people who settle on the slopes of Hualalai with some sort of presumption that Hualalai is done. It's overdue, and it could take out Kailua Kona.

My husband is totally averse to living near lava flows, and wanted to live in Kapa'au. It was really hard to talk him into lower Waiakea in Hilo, and he wouldn't even look at anything up Kaumana. Was totally nervous about a place near Boiling Pots.

I think people who post to Punaweb have an acceptance of lava risk that far exceeds the average in some other parts of the island. Which makes total sense. That is the right demographic for living on Kilauea.

I hope though that newbies who post here understand that if they posed lava questions somewhere else here or on a different island, that many people who move here do assess lava risk and rule out lava zones 1 and 2 at bare minimum, and think real hard before buying in Zone 3.

I personally don't tell people who come to this forum worried about lava that it is not a big concern. Not everyone is OK with moving at short notice, and if you're not at peace with lava coming to your door, then letting attractive prices lure you into high risk could be a big regret at some point.

That goes for the slopes of Mauna Loa and the inundation planes for ML, absolutely. I'm kind of shocked that anyone who lives here would be unaware of Mauna Loa's capacity for wreaking havoc.

Kathy

[PaulW]

Observe the map on the left:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Loa#Setting

Does this mean that most of Puna would not be threatened by a Mauna Loa eruption?
Of course, there's always Kilauea but ML packs more of a punch.

[missydog1]

If Kilauea takes out Pahoa, and if Mauna Loa took out Hilo, I guess the new slogan for lower Puna might be "drive to Kona." Just take Chain of Craters Road up and turn left, only 100 miles.

Mauna Loa could also take out our wonderful, new, improved Saddle Road.
Let's hope not.

Kathy

[pander75]

I was fairly reassured that Mauna Loa won't have an imminent eruption. I went to Dr Ken Hon's talk at UH Hilo on Oct 15. The question was asked about Mauna Loa's activity and the microphone was turned over to a scientist that specializes in Mauna Loa. He gave a detailed answer, but the breakdown is that Mauna Loa is showing increased activity, and they have been getting lots of detailed information. HOWEVER most of that detailed info is because their monitoring instruments are much better now than they have been in the past. They ARE recording more tremors, but not even close to what they recorded before the last eruption. So yes, Mauna Loa will almost certainly erupt sometime, but probably not sometime soon. Geologically speaking, "soon" could be decades or lifetimes away.

There is a live recording of the meeting, which was VERY informative, however the audio on the recording is poor. The Mauna Loa question comes up around 1 hour 15 mins on this vid:
http://livestre.am/4Yltd

During the talk Dr Hon shared another video which has now been reedited at posted on YouTube about pahoehoe and how it acts. "What to expect when expecting lava" is absolutely worth watching. It really gives perspective about our current situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooes_mqTwME