Hawaii Island's Mauna Loa loses title of world's largest volcano
A 3-D map of Tamu Massif, a massive undersea shield volcano believed to cover an area the size of New Mexico.
There are countless pieces of information about Hawaii’s geology that residents hold as fact. Three of these are:
• We are the only state in the union made up entirely of islands.
• Our northwest-drifting Islands were formed entirely by a single magma hotspot, now located beneath the southern half of Hawaii Island and still feeding the growth of the island.
• We have the largest volcano on the planet: Mauna Loa—covering 2,035 square miles of land area (more than half of Hawaii Island's above-ocean lands) and possessing a maximum width of 75 miles.
Turns out, we may have to scratch one of these out of the science textbooks.