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Kilauea Volcano

Decent Essays
Tony McGee
Mr.Hooker
(Environmental Science)
Dec 16, 2015

The Kilauea Volcano is the youngest volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. Because when viewed from above it seems tiny in comparison to the neighboring volcano Mauna Loa, Kilauea was originally believed to simply be a satellite of Mauna Loa instead of a distinct volcano. Research that has taken place during the last decades, however, shows that not only is Kilauea a separate volcano, but its magna-plumbing system actually goes over 60 kilometers deep into the earth. The Kilauea Volcano sits on a curved line made up of other volcanoes such as Kohala and Mauna Kea.
Description
The highest point on the Kilauea Volcano is slightly less than 4,200 feet. In addition, it has a large caldera at the summit that is 3 kilometers by 5 kilometers wide at the main depression but is 6 kilometers by 6 kilometers at the outermost faults and goes down 165 meters deep. The entire area of the volcano is 552 square meters. The oldest rocks found on the volcano date back 23,000 years and scientists estimate that the first eruption occurred between 300,000 and 600,000 years ago. Despite this, about 90% of the basaltic shield volcano found on the surface is made from lava flows that occurred less than 1000 years ago while 70% of the actual volcano’s surface is 600 years old or younger. The volcano gets its name, Kilauea, from the Hawaiian word meaning much spreading or spewing, referencing the frequent lava flows.
Location
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Kilauea shares the name of the active volcano, Mt. Kilauea. The name literately translates to spewing or much spreading in Hawaiian. Kilauea was once nicknamed the Guava capital of the world because it was home to the Guava Kai Plantation, the largest guava plantation in the world. The guava kai plantation closed late
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