(Belga) After a dormant phase of nearly 40 years, the Mauna Loa volcano erupted on the island of Hawaii. The eruption began Sunday evening shortly before midnight (local time), said the American seismic monitoring institute USGS.
So far, the eruption was limited to the Moku’?weoweo crater, located at the top of the mountain. There is therefore currently no risk of lava flows for the communities located downstream. According to authorities, Mauna Loa is the highest active volcano in the world. Mauna Loa’s past eruptions have shown that eruptions from the volcano are very dynamic, especially in the early stages, the authority warned. The winds could carry gases and volcanic ash towards inhabited areas. On Twitter, the seismic observatory published a photo taken by a webcam located at the top of the volcano. You could see the lava spilling into the crater. According to authorities, the eruption was accompanied by several low-intensity earthquakes. Mauna Loa is on the largest island in the US federal state, often referred to as “Hawaii” or “Big Island”. Its summit rises more than 4,100 meters above the Pacific archipelago. When it last erupted in 1984, a 25-kilometer-long lava flow approached the town of Hilo. (Belga)