Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupts as officials warn people to prepare

(Chelsea Jensen/West Hawaii Today via AP)

The world’s largest active volcano has begun to erupt, and while it was not immediately threatening communities on Hawaii’s Big Island, officials warned residents to be ready for worse.

Many current residents were not living there when Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago. The US Geological Survey warned the roughly 200,000 people on the Big Island that an eruption “can be very dynamic, and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly”.