Fissure prompts more evacuations in Hawaii
A new volcanic fissure on Hawaii’s Big Island sent gases and lava exploding into the air, prompting officials to issue calls for more evacuations as residents awaited a possible major eruption at Kilauea volcano’s summit.
Hawaii County Civil Defence issued an emergency cellphone alert after the fissure was discovered early Sunday morning. The agency said one “unidentified structure” was destroyed by the new vent, bringing the total number of homes and other buildings lost to lava to nearly 40.
Residents living near the fissure were told to evacuate, and two nearby community centres were serving as shelters.
Lava spread across hundreds of metres of private land and loud explosions rocked the neighbourhood not far from the Leilani Estates subdivision, where more than a dozen other active vents opened over the past week.
Nearby resident Richard Schott, 34, watched from a police checkpoint as the eruption churned just over a ridgeline and behind some trees.
“I’ve actually seen rocks fly over the tree line and I can feel it in my body,” Schott said. “It’s like a nuclear reaction or something.”
The new opening still showed signs of activity Sunday afternoon and was about 300 metres long, officials said.
Few fissures, ground deformation and abundant volcanic gases indicate eruptions on the eastern flank of Kilauea are likely to continue, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.
“The appearance of the fissures in the past couple of days does not change the overall picture or concern,” USGS scientist Steve Brantley said.
Christian and Maritza Ricks, who moved to the area from California in April, witnessed the latest eruption.
“I guess it’s just part of living on the island,” Christian said.
Most of the lava outbreaks have occurred in and around Leilani Estates, where molten rock has burst through the ground, destroying more than two dozen homes and resulting in evacuation orders for nearly 2,000 people.
Geologists have warned that Kilauea’s summit could have an explosive steam eruption that would hurl boulders and ash miles into the sky.