± 2,58 million yrs. BC to ± 10.000 BC

The Malagasy hippo lived on the island of Madagascar. Now (2022) it is believed to be extinct. The fossil record suggests that at least one species of hippo lived until about 1000 AD. The animals were very similar to the extant hippopotamus and pygmy hippopotamus. Although the hippo has not been well studied, there is growing confirmation that there are three species of Malagasy hippopotamus.

Hippos live half in the water. It is possible that they survived a journey of 400 km across the canal. However, it is also possible that the water was less deep then, with small islands along the way. Three distinct and successful migrations may have brought the three species to Madagascar. Hippopotamus lemerlei, Hippopotamus madagascariensis and Hippopotamus laloumena are the three species included in this class. The fossil record of the Malagasy hippo is extensive. Found bones show signs of slaughter. That indicates that the hippos survived until humans arrived in Madagascar. Their extinction may also be due to humans.

Despite the many fossils found, the hippos of Madagascar are not much studied. The hippos were among the dominant grazers in Madagascar. The animal loosely resembled its African cousin. The African hippo is larger in size. The Malagasy hippopotamus was about 1,5 m – 2 m in length, 0,7 m high and weighs about 250 kg. The smaller size of the Malagasy pygmy hippopotamus is the result of insular dwarfism. The species evolved into the smaller environment, such as Madagascar, with a limited food supply. Even if they were smaller, they could have walked much faster and lived less in the water. Many fossils are found in the forested highlands.

± 2,58 million yrs. BC to ± 2020 AD

The Red Sea is an elongated inland sea located between Asia and Africa. The name Red Sea is a direct translation of the Greek 'Erythra Thalassa'. There is a theory that the name comes from the red blue algae that occasionally occur in large quantities in the Red Sea. The water can therefore have a red appearance. The name may also refer to the red rocks on the Gulf of Aqaba that rise from the sea.

The sea is nowhere wider than 360 km (2023). In the north it ends in 2 narrow bays, the Gulf of Suez, and the Gulf of Aqaba. The Red Sea borders Israel and Jordan to the north, Saudi Arabia to the east, and Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea to the west.

The Red Sea is located where Africa and Asia have been pulled apart by three plates over the past 10 to 20 million years. This plate tectonics moves further by 1 cm per year. It lies between arid land, desert and semi-desert. The water mass of the Red Sea exchanges its water with the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Monsoon winds occur due to heating between land and sea. Due to the remarkably high surface temperatures and the high salinity, this is one of the warmest and saltiest seawater masses in the world. The general average water temperature is 22 °C. The Red Sea is a rich and diverse ecosystem. More than 1200 species of fish have been recorded in the Red Sea, 10% of which are found nowhere else.

Our first specimen is a core sample from the seabed of the Red Sea at a depth of 1795 m. The bottom was drilled to a depth of 359,6 m. This means that our specimen was located at a depth of 2154,6 m below sea level. The underwater expedition found surface temperatures of 28 °C in winter and 34 °C during the summer.

Our second sample was extracted from a water depth of 2169 m and sea bed penetration of 34 m. If we calculate this soil was found at a depth of 2203 m below sea level.

The earliest exploration of the Red Sea was carried out by the Ancient Egyptians. They attempted expeditions around 2500 BC for commercial purposes. The Biblical Book of Exodus tells the account of crossing what was later identified as the Red Sea.

± 2,58 million yrs. BC to ± 11.700 yrs. BC

Limestone is sedimentary rock composed of lime, or calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is made up of the calcareous skeletons of marine organisms, such as coccolites (= exoskeletons of unicellular algae) and foraminifera (= unicellular gene with an external calcareous skeleton). Those fossils are microscopic.

± 1,7 million yrs. BC to ± 1,1 million yrs. BC

The Alligator mississippiensis (= American alligator) belongs to the Reptilia class. The American alligator is found only in the southeastern coastal plain of the US, where it lives in freshwater swamps such as streams, reservoirs, ponds, lakes, swamps, and bayous, associated with larger rivers in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, North, and South Carolina. It also occurs in Mexico but was made there for the time being.

The Alligator Mississippiensis prefers quiet and calm fresh waters, but sometimes roams in brackish water. It is less tolerant of salt water as the salt glands on its tongue are not working.

The superfamily Alligatoroids includes all crocodiles, fossil and extant, that are more closely related to the American alligator than to the Nile crocodile. Members of this superfamily first emerged in the Late Cretaceous period, about 76 million BC. In addition, fossil alligatoroids have been found all over Eurasia, special land bridges both across the Bering Strait and the North Atlantic Ocean connected to Eurasia in the Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene periods.

There is a good Pleistocene fossil record in Texas. Alligators and caimans split in North America during the Late Cretaceous. The modern American alligator is good at the Pleistocene fossil record. Unlike other extinct alligator species of the same genus, it is almost indistinguishable. It has been established that the Alligator mississippiensis has existed in North America for more than 8 million years.

± 1 million yrs. BC

The number of whale species increased, ± 13 and 10 million years BC, due to the increase of their food. Small algae that also experienced great diversity in that period. Shore fish (incl. dolphins and porpoises) are at their peak of evolution. They descend from land-dwelling cloven-toed ungulates. ± 50 million years BC, the first whales emerged.

The blue whale is not only the largest animal on Earth, but also the largest creature that has ever lived on our planet. A colossal fossil of the whale confirms that this prehistoric whale was the largest, with a total length of 25 m. It is slightly smaller than the largest blue whales ever measured. They had a length of ± 33 m. A whale of this size during that period is a mystery. The planet then, went through a number of ice ages, during which massive amounts of water turned into ice and sea levels dropped dramatically. The remains of whales that died during the Pleistocene, even when they washed ashore, now lie many meters below sea level.

Food availability for whales changed drastically around that time, due to a global decline in sea temperatures. The food supply was concentrated in places of upwelling cold water from the deep, with a high density of prey. There is no certainty about this yet. Large whale fossils are difficult to recover, study and describe and therefore our understanding is incomplete.

± 900.000 yrs. BC

The Zhamanshin Crater was created in Kazakhstan about one million years BC. The crater is located about 100 km northeast of the small sea, 40 km southwest of the village of Irghiz and is known as one of the most recent and violent meteorite impacts on Earth. The crater has a diameter of 14 km and reaches a depth of 300 m. The place is best known for its irgizites, beautiful small droplets and wispy ribbons of jet-black glass. Irgizites are found near the associated impact crater. Tektites are usually hundreds of kilometers from the crater of origin. The earth has been stirred over several layers throughout the area and there are fossilized corals and shells on the surface of the soil. There are also many tektites and several types of molten rock. The less dense foamy rocks and dark dense impact glass are examples of this. This is a result of a transformation of the rock as due to the heat released during the impact.

The released energy was equivalent to several dozen Hiroshima bombs. It had the same effect as a so-called “nuclear winter.” The impact caused fires and smoke emissions that wiped out all animal and plant species within a radius of several hundred kilometers. It was not big enough to cause a mass extinction.

Impactites are terrestrial rocks that have been affected by asteroids or comets. After such events, the Earth's crust is melted, shattered, or shaken. Sometimes new minerals are formed because of these high-pressure events. An impactite can be found on or under the bottom of a crater, in the rim or in the ejecta (= material that is projected out of the crater after impact). This impactite shows good layering and has many gas bubbles. The material comes from an impact that occurred during the Pleistocene. It is one of the youngest known impact craters.

± 700.000 yrs. BC

Indochinite is a black tektite. They are melted pieces of rock and sand that formed after a meteorite impact. It is not the meteorite itself. They are found in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

The impact formed a large mushroom cloud that likely extended into the upper atmosphere. The trunk formed a superheated convection column that both baked the tektites and sent them into orbit as far as 11.000 km. All the volatiles such as water disappeared from it after it was melted under pressure by the impact and ejected heated by the convection column.

This tektite is known as indochinite because it is found in the former French colonies of Indochina, from Australia to Indonesia, plus Thailand. It is estimated that it was formed about 700.000 years BC.

± 100.000 yrs. BC

The dire wolf was a canid and one of the most successful predators of the Late Pleistocene, comparable to that of the Smilodon. This muscular carnivore dominated from Alaska to Bolivia. The animal had a wonderful bite and grab tactic. It fed on a wide variety of large prey, including bison, camels, horses, mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths.

The specimen is a fragment of the dire wolf's jaw found on private property in Florida. The region of Florida was a savannah ecosystem teeming with large mammals during the Pleistocene. The first dire wolf remains were discovered on the banks of the Ohio River, near Evansville, Indiana, USA. Later it was identified as a new species of Canis dirus. The animal was strikingly similar to the modern gray wolf. These two animals were about the same size, however, the dire wolf's bones are much thicker and the skull, including the jaws and teeth, is much larger. However, it later turned out that the dire wolf is not closely related to the modern gray wolf. The genetic line between the two animals passed about 5,5 years BC. apart. Research from 2021 described that the dire wolf supports a separate genus Aenocyon.

Estimates suggest that the average dire wolf weighed 40% more than the gray wolf. According to the theory, the increased power would be useful when wearing down larger prey. It is possible that the dire wolves were more physical when hunting, using their body weight to a great advantage. Remains found in Rancho La Brea tar pits suggest that the dire wolf was a pack hunter. They were represented almost ten times more than other mammals. This massive dog was a force to be reckoned with, weighing over 68 kg and a bite force stronger than any modern species. This adaptation made it perfect at taking out megafauna herbivores. It gave it an edge in the fight against its biggest competitor, the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon. The Smilodon was also an apex predator. The rivalry of the two species is supported by their proximity at certain fossil sites.

Despite their size and numbers, the dire wolf disappeared with many other species at the end of the Pleistocene. Rapid climate change played an important role in this large-scale extinction. The introduction of humans in America must also have played a role, as humans sought the same prey.

± 40.000 yrs. BC

The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) was one of the giants of the Pleistocene. A distant ancestor of the modern brown bear. The females were noticeably smaller than the males, so they were incorrectly viewed as a different species. Despite their enormous size, these gentle giants are thought to primarily forage for food and only attack other animals in an emergency.

Specimens of these gigantic animals have been found in various places in Europe. In a cave in Switzerland, skulls were clearly deliberately placed, indicating an early form of worship by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. This practice would ultimately be responsible for the animal's demise.

Like the brown bear, cave bears are believed to have used caves as natural shelters for their hibernation, a factor that led to their deaths. The encroachment of man, who was also looking for shelter, led to the shrinking of the habitat of the cave bear.

Like its current descendant, the brown bear, the cave bear, despite its enormous size, is thought to be essentially a food-seeker that mainly lived on fruit and sometimes ate fish. It is possible that they also ate each other, when food became scarcer. They either ate the remains of cave bears that had not stored enough fat to survive hibernation, or even killed it to survive, while seeking shelter and food as their habitats disappeared. Their hibernation also made them vulnerable to cave lions and cave hyenas with which they shared their habitat.

Large numbers of bones have been found in caves in England, Germany and Austria since the early 19th century.

Evolution has not made the bears much different. Certainly not when it comes to the inside. The skeletal elements of the living brown bear and the extinct cave bear are largely the same in shape. The format is inconclusive.

First of all, it is striking that the molars are quite large. The chewing surface is fairly flat and has a few low cusps. The cusps have a rounded top and do not feel sharp.

The more the molar has been used, the lower the lumps are. Wear first occurs in the center of the chewing surface and then spreads to the edges. The angular teeth of the males were clearly larger.

The cave bear is classified in the order of predators. However, this bear was a strict vegetarian, a trend that had already started with its predecessor Deninger's bear. Based on limb fossils, it has been determined that the cave bear was fatter and heavier than the brown bear.

The oldest cave bear fossils date back to 250.000 years BC, but some believe that they are not older than 130.000 years BC. The cave bear lived up to ± 16,000 years BC and may become extinct as a result of its strict vegetarian diet. The time the cave bear could use to build up a layer of bacon on which to live all winter was getting shorter and shorter due to the changing climate.

Cave bear remains have been found in connection with early human habitation. About 50.000 years BC the human population grew strongly and all those people needed a roof over their heads. That's why they put the bears out and they didn't survive our ancestors' stunt.

The scientists studied the DNA of the cave bear's remains to find out what developments the animal went through. The decline of bears turned out to be closely related to the rise of humans. That must have been the last nail in the coffin. The cave bear was doomed to die anyway.

± 30.000 yrs. BC

The plants all come from between the matted hair of a mammoth from a period when mammoths roamed the steppe. A steppe is a type of landscape in which no trees grow, but mainly grasses. No trees grow due to lack of rain. When it rains, the yellowish grass suddenly becomes green and herbaceous shrubs bloom.

The mammoth steppe or steppe tundra was a special form that spread over much of Eurasia during the cold periods of the Pleistocene. In contrast to a grassy steppe, herbaceous vegetation grew here.

The large-scale formation of land ice and the retreat of the seas resulted in a dry continental climate. Especially along riverbeds, a layer of loam was deposited by the wind. These were ideal conditions for the development of the mammoth steppe.

The plant species included grasses, herbaceous plants, dwarf birch (max. 1 m), arctic willow and sedge (= herbs with a grass-like growth form). The mammoth steppe otherwise looked partially like a current (2021) tundra. The vegetation was perfect food for the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, saiga, muskox, wisent and wild horses.

± 20.000 yrs. BC

The elephant is related to the woolly mammoth. He had a lot of hair to potect himself from the cold during the Ice Age. Like elephants, they are herbivors. After the end of the Ice Age, ± 12.000 years BC, it became increasingly difficult. Due to the warmer weather their habitat became smaller and smaller. About 4000 years BC, the last mammoths, then pushed all the way back to northern Siberia, became extinct.

There have been regular ice ages over the past millions of years. The polar cap never reached as far south as Belgium, but we do notice the influence of the ice ages because the landscape is covered with a thick layer of loess (= fine soil, brought in by the polar wind during the ice ages). The North Sea was almost completely dry in the Ice Age, and where the seabed is now (2021), there were large plains on which herds of mammoths and other animals lived. As a result, fishermen now often find bones of mammoths at the bottom of the North Sea.

The difference between ivory from mammoths and elephants can be seen. The difference is not in the color, you can be fooled there. But in the schreger lines (= cross-hatchings), they are clearly visible on the smoothly finished transverse side of the piece of ivory.

Bones are, after the teeth, the hardest parts of the body. While soft tissues deteriorate quite quickly, bones last longer. Yet bone also consists of organic material. Sooner or later it decays unless the bone becomes fossil. But that is rarely the case.

Foot and hand bones are small bones that are more easily rinse along by river activity and end up elsewhere than nearby the skeleton. Or they are removed from the skeleton because scavengers, such as hyenas, first ripped off the legs and took them away. Sometimes food tracks are clearly visible.

The woolly mammoth had two molars in each half of the jaw. The molar in the front deteriorated little by little due to chewing grass. A new molar kept growing in the back, slowly pushing the front one out of the jaw. For example, a mammoth changed six molars per half of the jaw during its lifetime, just as with elephants. The complete series consists of three milk molars and three true molars.

A mammoth tooth is made up of lamellae, which can be compared to the slices of a sliced ​​cake. The elongated ridges of the chewing surface are in fact only the top edges of the lamellae.

In general, the successive molars increase in size and the number of lamellae in each molar is higher. So, it is a matter of counting slats to find out how old the mammoth got.

Mammoths could live to about 60 years old, just like elephants today (2021).

Viewed from the side, the skull of a woolly mammoth is remarkably high, almost pointed. The inner part consists largely of an open spongy structure. Because of this construction, the skull has a large surface for the attachment of neck muscles, but still relatively light and sturdy.

He certainly needed strong neck muscles to counterbalance the enormous tusks. In older mammoth bulls, the tusks could reach a length of four meters with a weight of nearly eighty kilograms.

Molar. Found: Lathum, The Netherlands (JN0019)

± 20.000 yrs. BC

The reindeer is also called the caribou. Eskimos have made the reindeer their pets. But reindeer also live in the wild. It is a great grazer. They live together in a large herd and mainly eat moss, but also herbs, grasses, and branches of trees.

The name "caribou" comes from the Native Americans and means "scraper". If their environment is covered with snow and ice, the reindeer know how to scratch it away with their hooves to reach this frozen food. Hence probably the name. The wolf is the main enemy of the reindeer, which mainly seizes weak animals.

It is used for its fur, meat, milk and as a draft animal. Santa's sleigh is also pulled by reindeer.

During the last ice age there were large herds of reindeer in the Netherlands. Their presence indicated that it was bitterly cold in those regions at the time. Today they live in areas with a polar climate. However, Dutch reindeer bones show that reindeer mainly occurred during short periods during an ice age when the climate became slightly warmer. In a short time, the climate could change. Reindeer would then have no problems. With their dense fur, they were able to withstand the cold.

They have very broad hooves that are widely spread, which allow them to walk well over the swampy tundra. The strong side hooves also touch the ground when walking and make a clicking sound like castanets.

Reindeer bones are among the most numerous fossils of Pleistocene mammals in the Netherlands. They are fished in large quantities from the bottom of the North Sea, including bones and skull parts and characteristic antlers. Reindeer bones also regularly come to light at sand extraction sites along the major rivers. A complete skeleton has never been found in the Netherlands. Intact skeletons are one of the great rarities, also abroad. The most complete skeleton was found in Denmark.

Striking in the Dutch material is the occurrence of size differences. Bones of large reindeer are usually found on the North Seabed. The suction holes further inland reveal a mixture of large and small bones. The difference in size is not easy to explain. One possibility is that the bones date back to different periods and that the reindeer became smaller and smaller during the Pleistocene. More likely, populations of different sizes of reindeer lived in different places at the same time. The groups were too far apart to mix. Where little food was available, the reindeer developed dwarfism. Where there was a lot of food, they got bigger.

± 20.000 yrs. BC

The wild boar is a stocky animal on four sturdy legs. The hindlimbs are shorter than the forelegs. It has a large wedge-shaped head, the nose ends in a rooting disc, typical of the family. The coat is bristly and dark.

The animal is mainly found in forested areas, but also in reed beds and swamps in a temperate climate. Wild boar has been found in Western Europe since the Middle Pleistocene, at least in the temperate and warmer periods. In the Pleistocene, the animal was larger than it is today (2021), but otherwise there have been no significant changes in physique and appearance over time.

The food is detected by smell. With its snout, the boar, relying partly on its sense of smell, digs up the earth and eats almost anything it finds.

The wild boar is the ancestor of the domestic pig. The first domestication took place in Asia Minor about 6.500 years BC. Biologically, the domestic pig and the wild boar are the same species. It is not known who the ancestor of the wild boar is. Several subspecies of the animal emerged during the Pleistocene.

From the New Stone Age, the pig can be found in Belgium and the Netherlands. The pig was and is kept for meat because the whole pig is edible. Pigs are used to find truffles, but also drugs. The hair is used for bristles, paintbrushes, brushes, brooms, and dusters. Lard (= animal fat) is used to make lipstick and toothpaste.

Fossil finds of boars are rare. In the wooded environment where the animals lived, fossilization was hardly possible. Moreover, it is difficult to date finds because Pleistocene and recent finds are found side by side.

Natural enemies of wild boars are wolf, lynx and brown bear. Humans also belong to these enemies. Fossil bones have been found that were processed by humans.

The skull has many functions, including protecting the brain and shaping the head or face and accommodating many senses, the nose and mouth. The occipital bone is one of the bones that make up the skull that has a large oval hole inside, through which the brain connects with the spinal cord.

The males' fangs are greatly enlarged and are used for fighting during rut. They are also used to turn the soil in search of food. The way of life has hardly changed since the Pleistocene.

The fact that wild boars are omnivores is clear from the teeth. There are nodules on the molars, with which nuts, roots, grasses, and herbs can be eaten. But they are also suitable for grinding carrion, worms, insects, and smaller mammals.

There have even been cases of wild boars attacking deer.

Jaw with Teeth. Found: Lathum The Netherlands (JN0049)

± 12.000 yrs. BC

Castoroides dilophidus is an extinct genus of huge bear-sized beavers. They lived in North America during the Pleistocene. We know of two species, the C. dilophidus in the southeastern United States. and the C. ohioensis in the rest of North America. Formerly the C. dilophidus was referred to as C. Leiseyorum.

This species became extinct between 12.800 BC and 11.500 BC. This happened together with mammoths, mastodons, and steppe bison, among others. During that period, the Clovis people settled in the region. Was it humans or climate change that caused the extinction? There is no evidence that humans hunted these animals.

The Castoroides were much larger than today's beavers (2021). They averaged 1,9 m and could grow to 2,2 m. Their weight could vary between 90 kg and 125 kg, making them the largest rodent in North America during the Pleistocene epoch. Their hind legs were much larger than modern beavers. The front legs were shorter. The tail was longer and possibly not paddle-shaped as we know it. There is no certainty about the flippers. The animal probably spent a lot of time underwater.

Beavers are known for their large incisors. The teeth would have had streaked and textured glazed surfaces. Those teeth were also much larger, up to 15 cm. Brain size was proportionally smaller, and we infer that the giant beaver may have had inferior interactions in its environment.

± 11.700 yrs. BC to ± 2020 AD

When lightning strikes dry sand, the sand around the electrical discharge is melted by the heat. A hollow glass tube called fulgurites is formed. The process is (lightning) fast, often trapping molecules from the surrounding atmosphere in the walls of the tube. They almost always arise in blowouts (= bowl-shaped depression between dunes, the bottom consists of dune soil) and not on the dune tops. In the desert, lightning usually strikes places closest to groundwater.

For most people, lightning is a flash of light that breaks out of the clouds out of nowhere. The lightning hits the ground and fades to black against the crash of thunder. However, the functioning of lightning is overly complicated. A lightning strike is like two fingers coming together. An isolated column of air, known as a leader, makes its way down from the clouds. The column meets a similar column rising from the ground. While these two columns are connected, a backlash moves from the ground to the clouds. That recoil creates the blinding light we know as lightning. The amount of current flowing through this connection is enormous and superheated air around the bolt explodes, this is what we call thunder. So, the lightning bolt always comes first, followed by the thunder.

The complex, branching structures sometimes reach a length of more than 1.219,2 cm. Scientists can study the composition of ancient climates through such natural time capsules. Extracted from fossil dunes that preserve its delicate structure, micro-spectroscopic analysis of trapped gases in the fulgurites offers a view of climates thousands of years old in regions where weather patterns have changed dramatically.

± 820 yrs. AD

Popularly known as the elephant bird, Aepyornis was the largest member of an extinct family of flightless birds on the island of Madagascar. Some specimens were nearly 3 m long and weighed more than 500 kg.

The animal's eggs surpass all other known bird eggs, with a volume of almost 7l. At 160 times that of the average chicken, these are the heaviest eggs of all vertebrates, including dinosaurs. Its impressive size may evoke ideas of a huge ostrich or even the "terror bird" (Phorusrhacids) of the late Paleocene, but researchers think it was more like the much smaller kiwi. Because of their size, science suspects the animal moved slowly through the forests of Madagascar, looking around and splitting tough fruits with their heavy, pointed beaks.

The arrival of humans in Madagascar, in the beginning of the 1st century, is a theory for the disappearance of elephant birds. Fragments of eggs where some bones show knife cuts have been found at archaeological sites. This hypothesis is being questioned because such evidence is very scarce.

The nutritional value of such a large egg is, of course, hard to question. The exact period of disappearance is unknown. Concentrations of such eggs suggest that these animals were nesting in common. Due to their size, they probably had few natural predators except for a few predators

± 2018

This shape of a network of glassy lava is one of the lightest natural minerals on Earth. It formed in the powerful lava fountains that erupted of the Kilauea Mountain on the island of Hawaii in 2018. The event ended eight months later, ending the decades-long eruption that began in 1983.

Tephra describes every rock released during a violent volcanic eruption, from ashes to lava bombs and the more disembodied forms of rock in between. Molten lava stretched as finely as locks of hair, teardrop-like pools of jet-black volcanic glass, and fragile latticework that formed in an instant as powerful lava fountains exhale under tremendous pressure. The rapid change in pressure forces the gases in the lava to escape at high speed, leaving a delicate network of interconnected glass filaments.

These tephra are extremely light and delicate and have a tendency to shed small crumbs of material. No matter how carefully you handle the material. Be extremely careful when handling the preparation. It can bounce in your palm, but can easily be ground into powder. There may be crumbs in the jar, unavoidable with such a delicate material.

On the island of Hawaii, which is the youngest and largest of the Hawaiian chain, six volcanoes have coalesced. Mauna Loa is the largest by volume. The dormant Mauna Kea is the tallest. On the southeastern of Mauna Loa, lies Mount Kīlauea, the youngest and one of the most active volcanoes in the world.