Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting earlier this week after nearly 40 years of no activity—the longest quiet period for the volcano in recorded history. I’ve been fascinated by the eruption since it began on Sunday and realized I had a lot of questions, including some that seemed pretty elementary, like, “how do volcanoes work, anyway?” and “is this eruption going to be bigger because the volcano waited so long?”
To get some answers, I called up volcanologist Jess Phoenix. Fortunately, she told me that when it comes to volcanology, “there are no stupid questions.”
