Where is Mauna Loa erupting from?

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An aerial view from a helicopter cockpit shows lava spewing out of the earth during Mauna Loa's eruption in Hawaii, in this still image taken from social media video.
An aerial view from a helicopter cockpit shows lava spewing out of the earth during Mauna Loa’s eruption in Hawaii, November 28, 2022, in this still image taken from social media video.

Samantha Hansen/Safari Helicopters via Reuters

The eruption began Sunday night at its summit after a series of large earthquakes.

Scientists said they knew the eruption was coming. “We just didn’t know that it was going to be in the middle of the night after Thanksgiving weekend,” USGS volcanologist Wendy Stovall told CBS News correspondent Carter Evans.

The eruption then spread to vents on the mountain’s northeast side and lava emerging there could head toward Hilo, which is on the east side of the island.

Ken Hon, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said he doesn’t expect additional vents to form on the volcano’s southwest rift zone during this eruption. That means communities to the buy phone number list west would be spared lava flows this time.

Mauna Loa also erupted from the northeast in 1984. That time, lava headed toward Hilo but stopped a few miles short of the city.

Historically, each Mauna Loa eruption has lasted a few weeks. Hon expects the current eruption to follow this pattern.

Is Mauna Loa exploding like Mount St. Helens?
Mauna Loa is not exploding like Washington state’s Mount St. Helens did in 1980, killing 57 people. That eruption sent ash soaring over 80,000 feet and raining down as far as 250 miles away.

Looking back at the Mount St. Helens eruption

The magma in Mount St. Helens tends to be stickier and traps more gas, making it much more likely to explode when it rises. It’s of a variety called composite volcanoes, which form concave cones.