What does Lōʻihi's name mean in English?
Lōʻihi is a seamount, or underwater volcano, on the flank of Mauna Loa, the Earth's largest shield volcano. It is the newest volcano created by the Hawaiʻi hotspot in the extensive Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. The distance between the summit of the older Mauna Loa and the summit of Lōʻihi is about 80 km (50 mi), which is, coincidentally, also the approximate diameter of the Hawaiʻi hotspot. Lōʻihi consists of a summit area with three pit craters, an 11 km (7 mi) long rift zone extending north from the summit, and a 19 km (12 mi) long rift zone extending south-southeast from the summit.The summit's pit craters are named West Pit, East Pit, and Pele's Pit. Pele's Pit is the youngest of this group and is located at the southern part of the summit. The walls of Pele's Pit stand 200 m (700 ft) high and were formed in July 1996 when its predecessor, Pele's Vent, a hydrothermal field near Lōʻihi's summit, collapsed into a large depression. The thick crater walls of Pele's Pit—averaging 20 m (70 ft) in width, unusually thick for Hawaiian volcanic craters—suggest its craters have filled with lava multiple times in the past.
Lōihi's north–south trending rift zones create a distinctive elongated shape, from which the volcano's Hawaiian name, meaning "long", derives. The north rift zone consists of a longer western portion and a shorter eastern rift zone. Observations show that both the north and south rift zones lack sediment cover, indicating recent activity. A bulge in the western part of the north rift zone contains three 60–80 m (200–260 ft) cone-shaped prominences.Until 1970, Lōihi was thought to be an inactive volcano that had been transported to its current location by sea-floor spreading. The seafloor under Hawaii is 80–100 million years old and was created at the East Pacific Rise, an oceanic spreading center where new sea floor forms from magma that erupts from the mantle. New oceanic crust moves away from the spreading center. Over a period of 80–100 million years, the sea floor under Hawaii moved from the East Pacific Rise to its present location 6,000 km (4,000 mi) west, carrying ancient seamounts with it. When scientists investigated a series of earthquakes off Hawaii in 1970, they discovered that Lōihi was an active member of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain.
"long"