Rising Above the Pacific

Some of the most popular Big Island real estate Hawaii is on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth in terms of area covered. As one of five volcanoes to form the island of Hawaii, Mauna Loa is still an active shield volcano that last erupted in 1984 and has been in existence for an estimated 700,000 years. The last eruption did not cause casualties although previous eruptions in 1926 and 1950 destroyed villages and even damaged a major portion of the city of Hilo. Translated from Hawaiian as “long mountain,” Mauna Loa is actually shorter than its northern sibling Mauna Kea, although it is much wider. On top of Mauna Loa is a collection of observatories dedicated to studying the space.

Thanks to the lofty summit, interference from the atmosphere is greatly reduced. Mauna Loa Observatory and the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory are both located at the peak of the mountain, roughly 12,000 feet up the mountain. The Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy project has been in progress since 2006 and has been working to explain the origin of the universe. Mauna Loa is also a part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and is also an active part of ancient Hawaiian mythology and folklore.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 12:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.