Scientists identify Earth's largest shield volcano, and it's not Mauna Loa
You may not have heard of Puhahonu, the planet's largest and hottest shield volcano.
Mauna Loa in Hawaii has long reigned at the world's largest shield volcano, but it might need to acknowledge a new champion in that category.
A team of researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has declared nearby Puhahonu as "Earth's biggest and hottest shield volcano" in a study published online this month in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
There are multiple types of volcanoes (including stratovolcanoes and cinder cones), but shield volcanoes like Mauna Loa and Kilauea are among the most famous and recognizable. "Shield volcanoes are almost exclusively basalt, a type of lava that is very fluid when erupted," Oregon State University explains. That gives these volcanoes their distinctive sloping sides.
Puhahonu, which translates to "turtle rising for breath," is located in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't look like much when seen from above the water, but the researchers say it's nearly twice as big as Mauna Loa.
The team of volcanologists and ocean scientists used an ocean floor survey and chemical analysis of rocks to help reach the new conclusion on Puhahonu. The University of Hawaii noted that scientists had suspected as far back at the 1970s that Puhahonu was the largest of the Hawaiian volcanoes. They just didn't have the research to back it up until now.
The visible islands atop Puhahonu have been known as Gardner Pinnacles, but the study team hopes to bring attention to its proper name.
Said study lead Michael Garcia, "We are sharing with the science community and the public that we should be calling this volcano by the name the Hawaiians have given to it, rather than the western name for the two rocky small islands that are the only above sea level remnants of this once majestic volcano."
