BY KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM This is the summit of Mauna Loa, 13,677 feet elevation, facing southeast into Mokuaweoweo Caldera. The caldera is basically oval, about two by three miles, with about a 600-foot drop to the crater floor. This photo was shot on Nov. 2, 2002, at about 1 p.m. Click here for Quicktime panorama version. QUICKTIME REQUIRED TO VIEW PANORAMA

Inflated Mauna Loa
eruption fears subside

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> Big Island residents aren't quite as worried about a Mauna Loa eruption as they were several weeks ago, says Don Swanson, head of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

KILAUEA'S 20-YEAR ERUPTION SPECIAL REPORT

But a typical view may be the one expressed by Hilo resident Lori Mattos, who isn't exactly calm, either.

"I'm worried because we have no control over what's going to happen," she said.

She remembered the 22-day eruption of Mauna Loa in 1984, when lava stopped just 5.3 miles short of an upland part of Hilo.

The thing that has people on edge is the observatory's announcement in September that it had discovered very early signs that Mauna Loa could be building toward another eruption.

During about four months, over a distance of 1.9 miles, the summit of Mauna Loa had stretched four-fifths of an inch, the observatory said.

The observatory pointed out that there were no mini-earthquakes, which normally warn of an eruption, so no eruption was likely soon.

But a Stanford University associate of the observatory put out a statement that made numerous references to "destruction." The statement was picked up by CNN, and the observatory was flooded with calls.

The hubbub finally died down. And Mauna Loa kept expanding, but by such a tiny amount that it's still barely more than the four-fifths-inch expansion it had reached in April.

Then the observatory seemed to go with the flow of the worried talk.

"What if the 1984 flow from Mauna Loa hadn't stopped?" it asked in its weekly "Volcano Watch" column in October.

The answer: Hilo would have been cut in half just a few feet south of downtown, they said.

But they added that Mauna Loa flows have reached the ocean in the Hilo area no more often than once every 3,500 years. The last time was 1,200 years ago, creating the land where Hilo airport now stands.