It stopped 4.5 miles outside Hilo.
, has erupted 33 times since 1843. Over the past 3,000 years, scientists estimate it has erupted every six years based on data collected. The volcano doesn’t always behave as expected though. When it erupted on Sunday night, it marked the first eruption in 38 years — the longest period of inactivity since record keeping.. For three years, the number of small earthquakes increased, and for nine years, the summit gradually inflated.
Then finally, at 1:25 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time on March 25, 1984, Mauna Loa saw a quick increase in small earthquakes — two to three per minute — and a growing tremor. These were the signs that an eruption was imminent. The eruption began at the enormous 3-mile-long Mokuaweoweo caldera at 13,000 feet, just as it did on Sunday night. Eruptive fissures formed out of the ground, and lava fountains extended into the northeast rift zone.
Later in the day, a fissure erupted that would become a main vent. “At 4:41 p.m., a new fissure opened up at the 2,850 m elevation ,” the U.S. Geological Survey explained on itsof the 1984 eruption. “This fissure rapidly migrated both uprift and downrift, so that by 6:30 p.m., a line of fountains slightly longer than 1.6 km was active.”
Fountains from this fissure system shot up to 165 feet, and four parallel lava flows made their way down the northeast side of the volcano at a fast rate of 300 to 700 feet per hour. The northeast side points in the direction of Hilo, but the slopes are gentle and can be monitored closely.
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