Hawaii is well known for its active volcanoes. In fact, on the big island,
the draw of witnessing a volcanic eruption is one of the main draws of tourists to the island.
For a period of 35 years between January 1983 and September 2018, there was always at least
one volcano erupting on the big island. However, As I am recording this video, none of these
volcanoes are actively erupting. A future viewer of this video should not be surprised to hear
if one of these volcanoes is currently erupting as they are watching this video.
After all, the Hawaiian islands is host to two of the most active volcanoes on the planet.
This video will cover the 4 active volcanoes on the big island of hawaii.
I will cover the volcano on the island of Maui, as well as a series of submarine volcanoes
around the Hawaiian islands in a different video. First, I will cover some background information.
The reason for the formation of the Hawaiian islands is purely from volcanic activity. The
Big Island of hawaii is the closest landmass over the Hawaiian islands hotspot, which is responsible
for the current volcanic activity. Over the last 700,000 years, the Big island of hawaii has formed
from 6 distinct large shield volcanoes. Of these, one of them, Mahukona, never breached the surface.
A second volcano, Kohala, hasn't erupted in about 120,000 years. This video will focus on the other
4 volcanoes which are classified as active on the big island of hawaii. 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 first volcano we will cover is the Hualalai
volcano, which is located in the west central part of the big island. This volcano reached
sea level about 300,000 years ago, and currently covers about 7% of the area of the big island.
When most people fly into the big island of hawaii, they fly into the Kona international
airport. When an airplane lands, it is landing on part of this volcano's most recent lava flow.
You heard that correctly, much of the Kona international airport is built on top of a
lava flow which formed less than 250 years ago. The Hualalai volcano has a long record of recent
eruptions, with the most recent one being in 1801. In fact, this volcano is known to have erupted 22
times in the last 10,000 years. If it were to erupt again, it could pose a threat to the town
of Kona, and its international airport. The second volcano we will cover is the
Mauna Kea volcano, which is in the north central part of the island.
Mauna Kea is a truly special volcano in terms of its height. If you count the base
of the seafloor as the volcano's starting point, Mauna Kea is the tallest volcano in the world.
It is over 10000 meters tall (10,211 m 33,500 ft), although much of this
is below sea level. From sea level, Mauna Kea is the tallest volcano in the Hawaiian island chain,
and stands about 4200 meters above the surrounding ocean (4,207.3 m 13,803 ft). Of the 4 active
volcanoes on the big island of hawaii, Mauna Kea is considered to be the least active of the group.
For some context, Mauna kea has not erupted in over 4000 years.
Its last eruption occured in 2460 BC (+-100 years). Within the last 10,000 years,
this volcano has only erupted six times. Although this volcano is still geologically active today,
the risk of an eruption in the near term future is quite low. As a result, the world renowned Mauna
Kea observatory sits on top of this volcano. The third volcano we will cover is the Mauna
Loa volcano, which sits in the south central portion of the big island. It is the largest
volcano in the Big Island, and makes up about 50 percent of the island's surface area. In addition,
this volcano is considered to be the world's second largest volcano in terms of surface area
and volume. Mauna loa has a volume of about 40,000 cubic kilometers, although much of this is beneath
the surface. In the 19th century, this volcano was one of the world's most active volcanoes.
During this century, it erupted 25 times. Although it was also quite active in the 20th century,
its activity was overshadowed by the much larger and constant eruptions of Kiluaea.
The final active volcano we will cover is the Kilaeua volcano, which sits in
the southeastern portion of the island. It is currently the most active volcano in the world.
It had a sustained eruption for 35 years which began in 1983 and ended in 2018. This sustained
eruption mainly occured from a single vent which was called (poo-oo oh-oh) Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This
vent was used for the thumbnail of this video, and is shown on screen.
Before I discuss the hazard posed by these 4 volcanoes, I need to show you this map. This
map shows the nine point rating system of volcanic risk on the big island of hawaii.
The lower the number is, the higher the chance of property destruction
from volcanic eruptions. If you live in the big island of hawaii, you 100% need to have your home
covered for volcanic damage and earthquakes. It does not matter where you live on the island.
I will now discuss the general hazards posed by these volcanoes,
as designated by the 2018 report from the US Geological survey. The two volcanoes which were
assigned the highest risk rating (aka high risk) were Kiluaea and Mauna Loa. In fact,
of the 161 active volcanoes in all of the United States, including its territories,
Kiluaea is rated as the single highest threat volcano. Why? Contrary to common knowledge,
the majority of this volcano's eruptions in the last 10,000 years have been explosive in nature.
In fact, the deadliest volcanic eruption in what is now the United States was not from Mount Saint
Helens, but rather Kiluaea. In 1790, a large volcanic explosion occured and killed 400 people.
Since this time, a similarly sized explosion has not been witnessed. With this being said,
a future explosive eruption is certain. If you were to ignore these explosive eruptions, it would
still be a very high risk volcano. In 2018 alone, this volcano injured 24 people and caused 800
million dollars worth of damage as the lava flows overran several communities. As for Mauna Loa, the
high designation is due to its frequent eruptive history and the future risk it poses to the town
of Hilo. A future eruption could destroy a large portion of the town. This nearly happened in 1984,
when lava flows from Mauna Loa stopped just about 6 kilometers from the edge of the town.
The hualalai volcano is rated as high risk, as a future eruption could jeopardize the town of Kona.
The lowest risk rating of these volcanoes was assigned to Mauna Kea,
which was given a moderate threat risk category. I hope that you enjoyed this video. If
you would like to request a specific topic, please leave a comment below!