After almost 40 years of silence, lava has been flowing out of the world's largest volcano since the weekend.

Thin liquid lava flows down the north-east slope of Mauna Loa on the main island of Hawaii in several channels over a length of ten kilometers.

Further above, glowing rock shoots up to 60 meters into the air in spectacular lava fountains.

According to the island's disaster management agency, there is currently no danger to Hawaii residents.

During the last eruption in 1984, however, the lava stopped only a few hundred meters from the outskirts of the port city of Hilo, located on the mountainside, more than 50 kilometers from the summit.

With a height of 4169 meters Mauna Loa is by no means the highest volcano in the world.

This place belongs to the almost 6900 meter high Ojos del Salado in the Chilean Andes.

However, the two figures refer to the height above sea level.

However, the base of Mauna Loa and its sister volcano Mauna Kea next door lies on the approximately 4000 meter deep sea floor of the Pacific Ocean.

From there, the two Hawaiian volcanoes have grown more than 8000 meters high and thus reach the level of the non-volcanic mountain giants of the Himalayas.

Their low-viscosity lavas gave the two large volcanoes of Hawaii the shape of huge shields, under which lies a huge volume of solidified lava rock.

Overall, geologists estimate the volume of Mauna Loa to be more than 75,000 cubic kilometers - enough to bury the entire state of Bavaria a kilometer deep under lava.

The most recent eruption on the "long mountain" - the translation of Mauna Loa from Hawaiian - began on Monday night.

Lava first erupted in the mountain's several kilometer-wide, oval-shaped summit caldera called Mokuaweoweo.

After just a few hours, however, several fissures opened up in the rift zone running to the north-east, from which glowing rock is now flowing uninterruptedly.

The last eruption in 1984 started the same way.

At that time, however, the eruption only lasted three weeks.

How long Mauna Loa will be active now, however, is still completely open.

Some eruptions in Hawaii can last for years.

The second active volcano on the same island, the much smaller Kilauea, has been active without interruption since 1983.