The Active Volcano in Hawaii; Mauna Kea

The Mauna Kea volcano is the tallest volcano and mountain on the planet, rising a total of 33,496 feet from the ocean floor. And, despite what some people might think, this volcano is indeed still active. It last erupted a little more than 4,000 years ago and will certainly erupt again.
A special thanks to the Extreme Pursuit KZbin channel for granting me permission to use clips of his footage!
Video Sources from the Extreme Pursuit KZbin channel:
[1] • Entire ground is lifte...
Thumbnail Photo Credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Public Domain, www.usgs.gov/m.... (Image was resized, cropped, color enhances, text overlay added, text bordered by black then overlayed with white text, GeologyHub logo added, orange border overlay added)
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Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[2] Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
[3] U.S. Geological Survey, "Post-Caldera Volcanism and Crater Lake", www.usgs.gov/v...
[4] U.S. Geological Survey, "Carrizozo Lava Flow", www.usgs.gov/v...
[5] Sherrod, D.R., Sinton, J.M., Watkins, S.E., and Brunt, K.M., 2021, Geologic map of the State of Hawaiʻi: U.S.
Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3143, pamphlet 72 p., 5 sheets, scales 1:100,000 and 1:250,000,
doi.org/10.313...
[6] Sherrod, D.R., Robinson, J.E., Sinton, J.M., Watkins, S.E., and Brunt, K.M., 2021,
Geologic map database to accompany geologic map of the State of Hawaii: U.S. Geological Survey data release,
doi.org/10.506...
[7] Outlines of each volcano were sourced from a graphic by: NPS, U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Public Domain, www.usgs.gov/m...

[@GeologyHub]

If you want to learn more about the pit crater which formed between 2014-2015, check out the video I have completely dedicated to that subject: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHXMo3R9adyrb5I. I hope that you learned something from today's video, such as for example that Mauna Kea has three rift zones (which are dotted with cinder cones)!

[@mikev2116]

What happens if a volcano erupts in an oil field? I would love to see or hear any information you may have on this.

[@JH24821]

Could a prediction be made when Mauna Loa moves into its post-shield stage? I read years ago Mauna Loa is in the later period of its shield-forming stage, but I can't remember where I read it or if it's even true. Thank you for your amazing video's! I'm really learning a lot from them.

[@GeologyHub]

@@mikev2116 the oil would probably vaporize. This is why an area having any recent volcanics disqualifies it from being an oil prospect

[@GeologyHub]

@@JH24821 if I had to make an educated guess, another 150,000 years for Mauna Loa

[@JH24821]

@@GeologyHub Thank you for your reply.

[@MightyMuffins]

Also those glaciers back in the day were invaluable as the smooth topography as well as it's sheer height above clouds at its summit made it absolutely ideal for telescopes and space viewing.

[@Astrofrank]

More important is the reduced air turbulence, meaning reduced blurring. But you are right, more clear nights are also very important. And the thin and dry air allows for infrared observations, resulting in two dedicated IR telescopes.

[@MightyMuffins]

@@Astrofrank Well that too

[@Shivaho]

I've had the Pleasure of being able to drive to the Top of it.... Amazing views... Also got to drive to the Top of Haleakala on Maui.

[@tactiletinkerer]

Did not know Mauna Kea had up to 170m of glaciation on its summit during the ice ages after its birth, makes sense 🤔 A nearly-33,500-ft / 10,210m mountain from sea level, would be poking its summit into airliner cruising altitudes! Thanks for another HI State GeologyHub episode! 👍🌺👍

[@DarkSygil666]

I've been waiting for you to do a video on this volcano. Thank you so much!

[@bevinboulder5039]

It looks like the Bent Pyramid in Egypt. I always learn something from your videos!

[@what_tha_what]

How amazing to see a place on earth especially in a U.S. state that has both extreme temperatures : Snow on Mauna Kea, and the lava from Kīlauea!!

[@theredrover3217]

Imagine there's a small (unlike Australia) island - with the majority of the world's climate zones. It is a truly wild place. 😊

[@maukaman]

So Mauna Kea grew to be so massive with an average yearly lava output being only half that what Kilauea’s output is today? If I’m understanding that right that is pretty amazing to think about!

[@GeologyHub]

This is correct! Also its later phase lava flows were more viscous so it had a steeper slope than comparable Hawaiian volcanoes

[@stonew1927]

Can you please explain why Mauna Kea hasn't erupted in almost 5,000 years, while Haleakela on Maui which is much further away from the "hot spot" has erupted much more recently? Similarly, with the Kohala Mountains/volcano, which you described in a video recently? Btw, I live the slopes of Mauna Kea along the Hamakua coast. It's snowing up there today.

[@dennisstorie4604]

5000 years because the mountain has moved away from the Hotspot. There's a new vent off coast that suggests that most likely will be the new source for mountain building and while Kilauea has activities for years it probably wane down

[@stonew1927]

@@dennisstorie4604 You seem to have missed the point of my question, which is to explain why a volcano that is further from the hot spot like Haleakela is still more active than those closer like Kohala (now extinct) and Mauna Kea (dormant).

[@Dragrath1]

I suspect it has to do with the magmatic plumbing both the different volcanoes exerting pressure on Each other but also the stability of the conduits in relation to that. After all if the heat and pressure the hot spot bring into the asthenosphere can more easily escape through a different magmatic conduit it probably will. If the pressure of an adjacent volcano suppresses activity then you might get a situation where the existing conduits of the suppressed volcano are given enough time to settle under their weight ad sealing the outlet to the surface. Ergo the volcano loses the ability to erupt readily. In this case you might argue that Mauna Loa and more recently Kilauea have probably been siphoning away material that could have fed these volcanoes. Moreover the size and scale of the Hawaiian volcanoes is mind boggling compared to even other hot spots, thus as more and more rock piles up on top of the seafloor/existing island it should exert more and more pressure downwards and start to sink since solid cold basalt is far denser/heavier than the underlying mantle and crust. For instance the towering edifice that is the big island is so massive that it is actually sagging into the mantle having apparently pushed the original seafloor down 10 kilometers into the mantle. In fact a big part of why the Hawaiian islands vanish so quickly geologically speaking is that they are denser than the surrounding crust/mantle and thus effectively sinking into the mantle. This unfolds on geological timescales but still the effect is significant especially given that the big island and its surroundings are still being pushed up by the hot spot plume itself Haleakela notably doesn't have any other active volcanoes in close proximity thus it likely doesn't have to worry about these suppression effects and if the volcano has been able to form a large hot magma chamber it likely has enough fuel to support eruptions for on the order of several million years perhaps given the relatively "recent" geologically speaking activity on older islands that have moved away from the hot spot around a million years ago. Basically I suspect some volcanoes eventually have the heat flux that should feed their reservoirs siphoned away by adjacent volcanoes perhaps in some cases their reservoirs even outright draining into and feeding an adjacent volcano's reservoirs. In this case Haleakela is likely the local "winner" on what is now Maui the losers then succumb to erosion or getting buried by the surrounding growing volcanoes leading to them gradually being erased.

[@stonew1927]

@@Dragrath1 That's an interesting theory. Are you a geologist? Or someone who's just interested in geomorphological processes? Appreciate your insight. Thank you . . .

[@Deliriousintentionsprojects]

Thank you for your work. I look forward to every video.

[@explorationandhistorywithethan]

I did my own thinking, and I drew Puhahonu with 3 rift zones and It looks like a cross of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

[@outlawbillionairez9780]

What's the time span of the building of one island to the beginning of the next? And is it roughly uniform?

[@shufflerp3868]

Always interesting... always!

[@I_make_better_edits]

I am so happy to find someone who knows that Mount Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on Earth

[@larrymoy4955]

Just got back from the Big Island. Such a geologically fascinating place while very relaxing!

[@KingfisherTalkingPictures]

I was surprised at how many cinder cones there were up there. You could hike into any of them if you wanted. Amazingly beautiful and cold.

[@paulmurphy773]

Maybe a video on the volcanos of Oahu, especially Diamond Head would be nice to see..

[@MountainFisher]

He has.

[@adriennefloreen]

Geology Hub, due to the numerous earthquakes and monsoon style storms I have not been able to upload the full video of the random geological activity we recorded near Lassen on thanksgiving day. However in one of my last two videos I used my neighbors computer to upload I personally thanked you and two other KZbinrs for inspiring my son to be interested in science and making him happy when he was in the hospital.

[@Kadag]

I really dig your channel. I would be interested in a video about the coastal areas of big island of Hawaii that are overextended and could subside. And the cataclysmic landslides that have occurred around the Big Island.

[@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx]

Late, but this video is very informative!

[@docr8197]

Mauna loa is actually considdered the main volcano of the complex

[@dennisstorie4604]

Since lava looks for the least restriction I'm guessing that Mauna Kea throat is plugged and hardened to the point Mauna Loa is the best bet. Plus Mauna Loa is closer to the Hotspot responsible for the island. Then you have the new vent activity off the coast under water

[@thequestioner5916]

Can you do a video on the mounts of cantal in France

[@danielnaberhaus5337]

Apparently it blew it's top 70,000 years ago and deposited many feet of ash on Mauna loa.

[@DARTHDANSAN]

How kool

[@SuperSlik50]

Just a quick lesson in pronunciation. The letter ‘E’ in Hawaiian is pronounced like the e sound in ‘Wed’. The long ‘e’ sound is spelled with an ‘I’ like in the word Waikiki. Kea would rhyme with Princess Leia

[@wiredforstereo]

Maunakea could easily erupt spreading ash 5-6 miles and not affect a single home.

[@nortyfiner]

Which is a good thing because at Mauna Kea's present stage of life, explosive eruptions are more probable than at the younger volcanoes.

[@Celestyal22]

Slightly confused on definition, did you mean cinder cone or splatter cone? Thanks

[@LindaMerchant-bq2hp]

One of 3 shield Hawaiian volcano

[@samsonsoturian6013]

How do we know the rate at which it erupted? Maybe when it first formed in erupted contiuously for centuries.

[@vbscript2]

That's why he said "average rate." Just because we know about what the average was doesn't mean we know what the instantaneous rates were. Could be lower rates over longer periods or higher rates over shorter eruptions. Or a combination of both.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@vbscript2 Yes, but how would we know that? We cannot prove there was any volcanic islands in this before the Kanaka got there over a thousand years ago, and there are many mystery eruptions causing "years without summer" in history. In fact, we're overdue for another one.

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Well, that would be awkward for the astronomers. IIUC, about half of the world's biggest ground-based telescopes are on Mauna Kea.

[@rareduck8987]

Can you do mt apo?

[@supertoasting1011]

What caused the lava to become more viscous?

[@guillandanthony711]

But why and how do eruptions change from non-explosive to more explosive with thicker lava? I thought that the magma content never changes.

[@xtreme1002003]

A lot of volcanos’ magma contents do change. For example, magma gets more viscous when silica starts leeching into the magma chamber.

[@phoomaa407]

Look up fractional crystallization. It happens when the supply of fresh magma decreases as the volcano moves away from the hotspot, and the magma chamber is allowed to sit.

[@curious5887]

​@@phoomaa407not related to guy question, but still a good point

[@ssoltau9318]

@@curious5887 Actually they do. When magma remains in the magma chamber for long enough, several things start to happen. When the supply of fresh magma decreases over time, the magma starts to slowly cool. At certain temperatures certain crystals start to form and start forming layers. The magma may also start melting the surrounding magma chamber. Both of these can increase the amount of silica in the magma. Both increase the silica in the magma, making it more viscous or thicker. When a new batch of magma is injected into the magma chamber it mixes with the older magma and it can become viscous as well and thus more explosive.

[@HAIYANE9910]

Mauna Kia: im the tallest mountain in the world. Mt Everest: Are you sure about that?

[@ssoltau9318]

Mauna Kea, still taller. Mauna Kea is measured from the sea floor to the summit while Mt Everest is measured from sea level to summit.

[@HAIYANE9910]

@@ssoltau9318 it is not mountain moron, it is a shield volcano! And Mauna loa is not the tallest shield volcano. It's tamu massif

[@inesis]

0:17 Or just about 93 football fields...

[@PunaSquirrel]

🤙🏼Home🤙🏼

[@hypercomms2001]

The potential fall and eruption on Mauna Kea is perhaps not good news if you are operating a telescope on the mountain...

[@lindagodfrey9994]

Excuse me? How is it active? It last erupted thousands of years ago, so it must be dormant.

[@kenduncan3221]

Usually they count if the volcano has erupted in the last 10,000 years and is likely to erupt in the future as being still active.

[@jeevanbk1709]

सगरमाथा हो सबैभन्दा ठुलो

[@anthonyloconte7835]

The only place on the world that you can snow ski in the tropics.

[@I.amthatrealJuan]

Maybe not. There are higher peaks in the tropical Andes.

[@sigisoltau6073]

Or what about Kilimanjaro in Africa? It's in the tropics and is high enough for snow.

[@wiredforstereo]

@@sigisoltau6073 Yup.

[@johnfrancis1925]

"with this being said"

[@Zrock210]

Do a video on Tolbachik in Russia and Banda Api in Indonesia

[@docr8197]

And its considdered dromant

[@spencersherman4763]

He said 'specific' instead of 'pacific'!!

[@vbscript2]

Ironic, since this one is actually a 'Pacific' topic. - haha

[@alfielobitana5375]

If this volcano erupt again it would be greater explosion than tsar bomb

[@davidedgar2818]

Mauna Loa also sits on some of the most ancient surface of the earth.

[@maukaman]

Are you referring to the oceanic crust that the volcanos rose from?

[@thhseeking]

The Pacific Ocean floor is only somewhere around 200 million years old. Anything older was subducted long ago.

[@maukaman]

@@thhseeking I thought that might be the case which is why I was wondering.

[@ssoltau9318]

No it doesn't. Oceanic crust is usually less than 200 million years old since it gets subducted under continents for example all the time. The oldest rocks would be found in Australia, Greenland and South Africa just to name 3 examples. Some of these rocks are over 4 billion years old.

[@elroyjennings7833]

Did Michael Jackson name every location in Hawaiihehe?

[@magnumserpentine6444]

I can just see one of those volcanoes going off, where Astronomers have constructed their towering Observatories. Some telescopes have been built in the actual craters of Cinder Cones. So much for that 100 million dollar (Example only not sure how much the actual price was for some of the many expensive observatories built up there) Observatory eh?

[@MountainFisher]

Close to a billion for Keck. The ELT extremely large telescope being built in the Chilean mountain/desert is $2 billion.

[@wiredforstereo]

Possible but unlikely. Large mountain, many possible areas for eruptions to occur, low probability of eruption in any given decade or century.

[@joedellinger9437]

Compared to the risk of being told to tear down the observatories and restore the summit to its natural state due to local politics… an insignificant risk.

[@joedellinger9437]

The local native Hawaiians want a better deal and realize threatening the future of the observatories is their best negotiating weapon. Can’t say I blame them. They do deserve a better deal. Hopefully cool heads will prevail and a deal can be reached that lets the observatories stay there long term… and the money spent to improve the lives of the Hawaiians does not disappear into corruption but actually does some good.

[@nortyfiner]

Oddly enough, the precision of the telescopes on Mauna Kea makes them into accidental seismometers. With enough ground shaking, such as sometimes happens when Mauna Loa is erupting, the telescopes can't even be focused. Unexplained blurry or shaky images while Mauna Loa is quiet might someday be the first sign that Mauna Kea is waking up.

[@rareduck8987]

Can you do mt apo?