Off Track: What’s a Volcano?
During a kona wind, fume from Puʻu ʻŌʻō (foreground) and Halemaʻumaʻu Crater (background), both on Kīlauea, blows northward, with towering Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the horizon. USGS photo.
click on photograph to enlarge
Many readers know that the Island of Hawai‘i is made of five volcanoes—Kīlauea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai, Mauna Kea, and Kohala. Those same readers know that such obvious features as the cones that dot Mauna Kea, the Hāla‘i Hills and Kūlani Cone on Mauna Loa, and Kapoho Cone, Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and Mauna Ulu on Kīlauea are places where eruptions took place. If that’s the case, then why aren’t they called volcanoes? Isn’t a volcano a place where lava reaches the surface of the earth? Why doesn’t the island have hundreds of volcanoes instead of only five?
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