A volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island on Thursday erupted anew with little sound and only modest fury, spewing a steely gray plume of ash about 9.1km into the sky that began raining down on a nearby town.
The explosion at the summit of Kilauea came shortly after 4am following two weeks of volcanic activity that sent lava flows into neighborhoods and destroyed at least 26 homes.
The eruption was the most powerful in the past few days, although it probably lasted only a few minutes, scientists said.
Geologists have warned that the volcano could become even more violent, with increasing ash production and the potential for future blasts to hurl boulders the size of cows from the summit.
Toby Hazel, who lives in Pahoa, near the mountain, said she heard “a lot of booming sounds.”
Those came after days of earthquakes.
“It’s just time to go — it really, really is,” she said, preparing to leave town. “I feel so sorry for the people who don’t go because they don’t have the money, or don’t want to go to a shelter and leave their houses.”
Some people in the community closest to the volcano slept through the blast, said Hawaii County Civil Defense spokeswoman Kanani Aton, who spoke to relatives and friends in a town called Volcano.
At least one person who was awake heard nothing.
Epic Lava tour operator John Tarson is an early riser and only learned about the eruption after receiving an alert on his cellphone.
The plume, a towering column of ash reaching into a hazy sky, looked different than others he has witnessed, because of its sheer height.
“What I noticed is the plume was just rising straight into the air, and it was not tipping in any direction,” Tarson said. “We’ve been expecting this, and a lot of people are going to see it and get excited and scared.”
Tour guide Scott Wiggers did not hear the eruption either and was not aware anything happened.
Later in the morning, he picked up four travelers for a tour and headed toward the volcano with the hopes of seeing “some action,” but it was raining too hard for them to see much.
Wiggers said the only sign of the eruption he encountered was ash covering the back bumper of his truck.
Residents as far away as Hilo, about 48km from Kilauea, were starting to notice the volcano’s effects.
Pua’ena Ahn, who lives in Hilo, complained about having labored breathing, itchy, watery eyes and some skin irritation from airborne ash.
The US National Weather Service issued an ash advisory and then extended it through early evening, and county officials distributed ash masks to area residents.
Several schools closed because of the risk of elevated levels of sulfur dioxide, a volcanic gas.
The immediate risk health risk comes from ash particles in the air, said physician Josh Green, a state senator who represents part of the Big Island.
Anyone with respiratory difficulties, such as asthma or emphysema, should limit their exposure to the ash, Green said.
“People need to stay inside until the winds shift and the ash has settled,” he said.
Extended exposure to sulfur dioxide can increase the risk of bronchitis and upper respiratory infections in the long run, according to findings of a study Green worked on with other experts that was published in 2010 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.
The US Federal Aviation Administration extended a restriction on aircraft from entering the airspace up to 9.1km above Kilauea’s summit. The earlier limit was up to 3km.
The prohibition applies to an 8km radius around the crater.
Thursday’s eruption did not affect the Big Island’s two largest airports in Hilo and in Kailua-Kona.
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