Hawaii's Kilauea volcano spewed ash nearly six miles (30,000 feet/9 km) into the air on Thursday, 17 May and scientists warned this could be the first of a violent string of explosions in the crater.
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano spewed ash nearly six miles (30,000 feet/9 km) into the air on Thursday, 17 May and scientists warned this could be the first of a violent string of explosions in the crater.
"This has relieved pressure temporarily," USGS geologist Michelle Coombs told a news conference in Hilo. "We may have additional larger, powerful events."
Residents of the Big Island were warned to take shelter from the ash fallout as toxic gas levels spiked in a small southeast area where lava has burst from the ground since the eruption began two weeks ago, authorities said.
The wind could carry Kilauea's ash plume as far as Hilo, the Big Island's largest city and a major tourism center, the County of Hawaii Civil Defense warned in an alert.
"Protect yourself from ash fallout," it said.
Geologists said the 4:15 AM (10:15 AM EDT) explosion was likely the first in a series of steam-driven explosions last seen 1924, rather than "the big one" that nervous residents had been fearing.
A spike in toxic sulfur dioxide gas closed schools around the village of Pahoa, 25 miles (40 km) east of the volcano, where fissures have destroyed 37 homes and other structures and forced about 2,000 residents to evacuate, health officials said. National guard troops were forced to put on gas masks at a nearby road intersection, according to a Reuters reporter.
USGS geologists and staff were evacuated from the Kilauea summit shortly before the blast and a webcam showed a gray plume of ash and chunks of magma known as pyroclasts that showered the volcano's slopes.
"This has relieved pressure temporarily," USGS geologist Michelle Coombs told a news conference in Hilo. "We may have additional larger, powerful events."
Residents of the Big Island were warned to take shelter from the ash fallout as toxic gas levels spiked in a small southeast area where lava has burst from the ground since the eruption began two weeks ago, authorities said.
The wind could carry Kilauea's ash plume as far as Hilo, the Big Island's largest city and a major tourism center, the County of Hawaii Civil Defense warned in an alert.
"Protect yourself from ash fallout," it said.
Geologists said the 4:15 AM (10:15 AM EDT) explosion was likely the first in a series of steam-driven explosions last seen 1924, rather than "the big one" that nervous residents had been fearing.
A spike in toxic sulfur dioxide gas closed schools around the village of Pahoa, 25 miles (40 km) east of the volcano, where fissures have destroyed 37 homes and other structures and forced about 2,000 residents to evacuate, health officials said. National guard troops were forced to put on gas masks at a nearby road intersection, according to a Reuters reporter.
USGS geologists and staff were evacuated from the Kilauea summit shortly before the blast and a webcam showed a gray plume of ash and chunks of magma known as pyroclasts that showered the volcano's slopes.