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Hawaiian officials are warning the Big Island's residents that the world's largest active volcano is in a state of heightened unrest.
While the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Thursday that Mauna Loa is not erupting and that there are no signs of imminent eruption at this time, there is increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit.
Scientists say the unrest is most likely driven by renewed input of magma beneath the summit, and they are monitoring the volcano for changes.
Hawaii’s civil defense agency is holding meetings across the island to educate residents about how to prepare for an emergency.
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FILE - Molten rock flows from Mauna Loa on March 28, 1984, near Hilo, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Ken Love, File)
"Not to panic everybody, but they have to be aware of that if you live on the slopes of Mauna Loa. There's a potential for some kind of lava disaster," Talmadge Magno, the administrator for Hawaii County Civil Defense, told The Associated Press.
He said that Mauna Loa makes up more than half of the Hawaii Island's landmass.
FILE - Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano, background, towers over the summit crater of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island on April 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)
During an eruption in 1950, the volcano's lava traveled 15 miles to the ocean in less than three hours.
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Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843, including in 1984.
FILE - Molten rock flows from Mauna Loa, located on the south-central part of the island of Hawaii, on April 4, 1984. (AP Photo/File)
The current alert level is "advisory."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
