the world's biggest volcano is named mauna loa in hawaii. mauna loa is part of the five volcanoes on hawaii's 'big island'. the most recent time this volcano erupted was in 1984. it erupted 33 times in the last 170 years. like all the other hawaiian volcanoes, mauna loa was created by the movement of the pacific tectonic plate which moved over the hawaii hotspot in the earth's mantle. it is a shield volcano. the largest recent eruption from mauna loa left a lava trail 51 kilometres (32 miles) long.