The biggest volcano in the world is located in Hawaiian Islands, USA. It is called Mauna Loa, which means in Hawaiian “Long Mountain”. It is the biggest volcano in the world compared with other volcanoes in terms of area and volume.
It is one of five volcanoes that are responsible for creation of Hawaiian Islands. It is 4.170 meters above the sea level, but the base of the volcano is at the bottom of the sea and measured from the bottom to the top the volcano itself is more than 17.000 meters high. It’s a shield volcano with very gently sloping sides.
The reason for this is its lava which is poor in silica content and it makes it very fluid. Thus it’s not prone to violent bursts, but usual volcanic activity is followed by lava fountains which are then turned into lava flow.
Hawaiian Islands are situated on the edge of Pacific tectonic plate, which is actually a hot spot for seismic activities such as volcanoes, tsunamis and earthquakes. Since the tectonic plates are moving, Hawaiian Islands are drifting away from the hot spot, which means that eventually Mauna Loa will stop being an active volcano.
This will happen in about 500.000 to 1.000.000 years from now. But, there is a great possibility of new island rising in the hot spot which will then be added to the existing chain. Most promising is Lo’ihi. It is a submerged volcano south of the Big Island.
One day, Lo’ihi could probably become a new island. Mauna Loa is a very active volcano with 33 recorded eruptions since 1843. Most recent eruption was in the period March and April 1984.
I cant believe that this volcano is really small and that the person who saw this thought it was the hugest one in the world! really guys I have seen bigger volcanoes in the science world exlporer textbooks.