View of Loihi Seamount northwest from a perspective high above and to the southeast of the Island of Hawaii (green). Loihi Seamount is in bottom center of image.
View of Loihi Seamount
northwest from a perspective high above and to the southeast of the Island of
Hawaii (green). Loihi Seamount is in bottom center of image.
Loihi Seamount is an active volcano built on the seafloor south of Kilauea about 30 km from shore. The seamount rises to 969 m below sea level and generates frequent earthquake swarms, the most intense of which occurred in 1996. An eruption at Loihi has yet to be observed, but scientists from the University of Hawaii have recently made many submersible dives to the volcano and deployed instruments on its summit to study Loihi in much greater detail.
The summit of Loihi is marked by a caldera-like depression 2.8 km wide and 3.7 km long. Three collapse pits or craters occupy the southern part of the caldera; the most recent pit formed during an intense earthquake swarm in July-August 1996. Named Pele's Pit, the new crater is about 600 m in diameter and its bottom is 300 m below the previous surface! Like the volcanoes on the Island of Hawaii, Loihi has grown from eruptions along its 31-km-long rift zone that extends northwest and southeast of the caldera.
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Information
| Location: 18.92 N 155.27 W |
| Elev. Below Sea Level: 969 m 3,180 ft |
| Volume: 660 km3 160 mi3 |
| Most Recent Activity: Earthquake Swarm (>4,000 events), July 16-August 9, 1996 |
| Hawaiian Volcano Stage: In transition between pre-shield and shield stage |
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