The early Hawaiians had good reason for naming the tallest mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii Mauna Kea, which is translated White Mountain.

Mauna Kea can receive enough winter snow to delight skiers and snow boarders. Last January, a heavy snow fall covered the tops of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, its neighbor to the south.

Both mountains are volcanoes. Mauna Kea rises 4,205 meters (13,796 feet) above the nearby Pacific Ocean. If its total height is measured from the bottom of the adjacent Pacific, Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain.

At 4,169 meters (13,677 feet), the summit of Mauna Loa is only slightly below that of Mauna Kea. Mauna Loa, the world's largest mountain, is so massive it is estimated to crush down the Earth's crust below by more than 5 km.

The satellite image here was made by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Aqua satellite. The top of the image is north. The red traces at lower right are heat signatures from lava emitted by a vent on the slope of the Kilauea volcano. Directly north of the heat signatures is Hilo Bay, where devastating tsunamis struck in 1946 and 1960.

Note that the snow-free slopes of Mauna Loa (lower peak in the image) are much darker than those of Mauna Kea. This is because Mauna Loa is a younger mountain with vast expanses of raw lava from comparatively recent flows.

The crater atop Mauna Loa is located slightly below the center of the snow cap. World-famous Mauna Loa Observatory is in the snow about half way between the crater and the north edge of the snow cap.

For a brighter view of snow over Hawaii captured during 2002, see NASA's Earth Observatory, a Goddard Space Flight Center web site.

Forrest M. Mims III