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OCEANIA MAP Mauna Kea Mauna Loa Haleakala Puncak Jaya (Mt Carstensz) Tongariro Ngauruhoe Ruapehu Taranaki (Mount Egmont) Aoraki (Mount Cook) ANTARCTICA MAP |
 | The summit of Mauna Kea in the winter of 1971, with snow down to about 11000 ft (3350 m) (photo by Dale P. Cruikshank) <click to enlarge> |
Mauna Kea
13796 ft (4205 m) Highest point in Hawaii . |
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| Location: | Northeast part of island of Hawaii | ||
| Lat / Long: | 19.8° N, 155.5° W | ||
| Volcanic Type: | Shield volcano with cinder cones | ||
| Volcanic Status: | Dormant, last eruption 4500 years ago | ||
| First Ascent: | Native Hawaiian | ||
| First Ski Descent: | |||
| Skiable Vertical: | over 3000 ft (900 m) possible; Ski Patrol on winter weekends | ||
| Administration: | Mauna Kea Forest Reserve (State of Hawaii) | ||
| Mauna Kea, the "White Mountain", is the highest point in Hawaii and the highest volcano in all of Oceania. Since its base is actually on the floor of the Pacific Ocean over 20000 ft (6000 m) below sea level, Mauna Kea could certainly be considered the tallest mountain on Earth, and it is the second largest volcano on Earth after Mauna Loa. This great volcano has entered its old age, the post-shield stage of volcanism where the summit caldera has been completely buried by pyroclastics and lava flows, and capped by a multitude of cinder cones. During the Ice Age, a large summit ice cap covered about 25 square miles (60 sq km) and glaciers reached as low as 11000 ft (3400 m), leaving prominent glacial moraines which are ubiquitous in the alpine area. Post-glacial eruptions ending about 4500 years ago then produced the fresh-looking cinder cones which now form the summit. Over the past few decades, telescopes have been constructed atop several of these cinder cones, and a service road provides excellent all-weather access to the summit observatories. This road also provides access to the famed "Pineapple Powder", the snows that fall every winter and attract numerous skiers and boarders. Snowfall is typically heaviest in La Nina years, while El Nino brings warmer and drier conditions. Numerous webcams on the observatories provide real-time views of the snowpack at the summit (see the bottom of my Cascade Volcano Webcams page). | |||
