Lissette and I went to dinner with friends at Merriman’s restaurant in Waimea on Sunday evening. We had no idea, like anyone else, what was brewing inside the world’s largest and most active volcano, Mauna Loa. We awoke to text messages from friends and family members across the globe asking if we were okay on Monday morning, with links to the Mauna Loa volcano news less than 50 miles from our front door. After laying dormant for almost 40 years, Mauna Loa erupted at 11:30 PM, Sunday HST.

In the slideshow of photos above, you can see the view from our driveway toward Saddle Road, which subdivides the island east to west, at 5000′ of altitude. Mauna Kea is on the left, and Mauna Loa is on the right with the orange glow. You can also see it during the day, evident by a smoke plume in the same direction.

We have traveled the 200+ mile round trip to the Volcanoes National Park to see Kilauea Volcano lava for two decades. Still, we never expected to see lava from our driveway emanating from Mauna Loa. We should have suspected this eruption was eminent as we’ve had numerous and frequent earthquakes lately from near Mauna Loa’s summit. These tremors are always a sign of lava activity below the island, but most of the time, they subside and, in this case, did so for almost 40 years until the flows of Sunday evening appeared.

The USGS predicts the flows will intersect and block the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (New Saddle Road) sometime in the coming days. This flow will force residents and visitors around the island to the Hilo side via Waimea or Ka’u, adding another 30 minutes to their commute. Last night we drove 40+ miles from the Mauna Lani Resort up to the DK Highway to the intersection of the Mauna Kea access road for the majority of views in the photos above.

You could smell the sulfur fumes and hear the cracking and wooshing sounds of the lava fountains 3 miles away. The views of the moving lava were spectacular until you triangulated that their direction was heading right for the very spot we were standing on. We were glad we made the trip despite the 4 hours of slow-moving cars and traffic, as the flow could stop at any point ending the potential once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view distant lava flowing from our front yard.

USGS Site for Updates on Mauna Loa:

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates

 

Written by Rick Oliver on December 2, 2022
Posted in: Blog, Hawaii Life |