The world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, stole the headlines in the last week of November. An active volcano poses the risk of eruption at any time. After spending 40 years dormant, the volcano spewed lava on 27th November. Streams of molten rock radiated down the flanks of the volcano towards Saddle Road, the main highway for the Island of Hawai’i. Mauna Loa usually erupts every seven years, and so this gap was quite a large one according to geophysicists.
Scientists can keep tabs on possible eruptions by recording changes in landforms and earthquakes. For Mauna Loa, there had been signs of an impending eruption since 2015. Those signs waned for a considerable time before spiking again six months before November, which served as a sign of the oncoming eruption. The eruption has cut off power to Mauna Loa Observatory but has not caused any threat to human life as of now.
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