Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on earth, has erupted for the first time in almost four decades.

The eruption began on the state’s Big Island about 11.30pm local time on Sunday in Mokuaweoweo, the summit caldera of the volcano.

However, lava flows have been contained in the summit area and do not currently pose a threat to local communities.

Footage from US Geological Survey (USGS) webcams at the summit captured fountains of lava spewing from a long fissure and spreading across the caldera floor.

More than a dozen earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 2.5 struck the region in the last several hours, USGS said. 

The volcano, which rises 13,679 feet above the Pacific Ocean, last erupted in March and April of 1984, sending a flow of lava within five miles of the city of Hilo.

Mauna Loa is the much larger neighbor to Kilauea volcano, which erupted in a residential neighborhood and destroyed 700 homes in 2018.

Some of its slopes are much steeper than Kilauea’s so when it erupts, its lava can flow much faster.

During a 1950 eruption, the mountain’s lava traveled 15 miles to the ocean in less than three hours.