The state of Hawaii is well known for its active volcanoes.
Most people when they think of Hawaiian volcanoes they tend to only think of volcanic acticity
on the big island.
However, one other hawaiian island contains an active volcano which will erupt in the
future.
This island is Maui.
Before I cover the volcano on the island of Maui, I want to first mention that this video
is part 2 of my video on volcanoes in the hawaiian islands.
If you wish to watch part 1, click on the video link on screen.
For this video, we are defining an active volcano as any volcano or volcanic field which
has erupted in the last 10,000 years.
The present day island of Maui formed from two large shield volcanoes.
If you look at the map of the island's topography, you can clearly see the two different volcanoes.
The western 25% of the island was formed from the now extinct west Maui volcano, which last
erupted around 320,000 years ago.
This volcano will cover the volcano responsible for the other 75% of the island, aka the eastern
part, which has erupted 8 times in the last 1,000 years.
The volcano in question is the Haleakala shield volcano.
Haleakala is a massive shield volcano, which goes more than 10,000 feet, or 3000 meters
above sea level (3055 m / 10,023 ft).
When I last went to this volcano's summit, there was small patches of ice and snow present.
Haleakala had 40 documented distinct eruptions during the last 10,000 years.
In terms of the distinct number of eruptions, this places the volcano between Hulalai and
Kiluaea in terms of volcanic activity.
However, this statistic doesn't tell the full story.
The Hulalai volcano is at a later stage of its life cycle than the 4 active volcanoes
on the big island of hawaii.
It is considered to be a waning post shield volcano.
As a result, its eruptions were not as long, and produced far less lava than eruptions
from each of the 4 volcanoes on the big island of Hawaii.
Specifically, its eruptions have only produced 10 percent of the volume erupted by the Hualalai
volcano on the western portion of the big island.
The last eruption from Haleakala was less than 600 years ago.
With this being said, the exact date is not certain.
Two sets of data show conflicting results.
One set suggests an eruption sometime between 1480 and 1600, while another set suggests
an eruption around 1750.
For this video, we will be using the 1750 date of this volcano's last eruption.
(pause 2 seconds) It has been 270 years since the volcano's last eruption.
Looking at the volcano's eruptive history in the last 10,000 years, it can take anywhere
between 10 and 1690 years for a new volcanic eruption to occur after the previous one ended.
I made a chart based on this information, which shows the percent of eruptions which
have occured after a set number of years.
The median number of years between eruptions in 120, while 75% of eruptions occur within
273 years of each other.
What is the hazard of the Haleakala volcano?
Overall, the threat from this volcano could be relatively placed as higher threat than
Mauna Kea, but lower threat than Hualalai on the big island of Hawaii.
In the 2018 volcanic hazard assessment from the US Geological survey, this volcano was
classified as a moderate threat.
With this being said, several towns are at high risk due to the path of previous lava
flows.
The most notable of these, is the town of Hana.
If you live on the island of Maui, you need insurance which protects you from volcano
related damage.
The volcano is not expected to erupt anytime soon.
The volcano has not produced any earthquakes or ground deformation in a very long time.
It will erupt again, just not in the immediate future.
I hope that you enjoyed this video.
If you would like to request a specific topic, please leave a comment below!