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World's Largest Active Volcano
by Katie Stubbs, 602
The Mauna Loa volcano is currently erupting in Hawaii. It is the world' s largest active volcano and this is the first time it has erupted in almost 40 years! The volcano had an alert level of advisory to begin with, but has recently been upgraded to warning - the highest possible classification. Mauna Loa covers approximately half of the US state ' s Big Island. This volcano at its tallest is 13,679ft (4,169m) tall and spans over 2,000 sq miles (5,179 sq km). This makes it bigger than Mt. Everest! Mauna Loa erupted at 11:30 pm on Sunday, Nov 27. This volcano erupted after dozens of small earthquakes happened in the area. Mauna Loa is thought to have erupted 33 times since 1843. The last eruption in 1984 sent lava flows as close as 5 miles to one of the state ’ s most populated towns, Hilo. Since 1980, the city ’ s population has doubled to around 200,000 residents, and Hawaii' s civil defense agency has warned these residents that this could become a lava disaster very quickly.
