Hawaii rocked by strongest quake in 40 years as Kilauea volcano sparks fountains of lava

series of fresh earthquakes on Friday, including a powerful magnitude 6.9, hit Hawaii's Big Island, where the Kilauea volcano has been spewing fountains of lava into residential areas and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

کد خبر: ۷۹۶۰۴۳

تاریخ: ۱۵ ارديبهشت ۱۳۹۷ - ۱۰:۰۲

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the strongest tremor at 12.32 pm measured 6.9, the island's largest earthquake in more than 40 years.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake, whose epicentre was on the south flank of the volcano, was not large enough to cause a tsunami although it generated sea level changes around the island of up 40 cm.

It caused buildings to shake at the Community Centre in Pahoa town, one of two evacuation centres in the area hastily set up after lava started burbling up through fissures in the ground in neighbourhoods nearby.

A new fissure opened up just before the latest tremor on Friday in one of those neighbourhoods, Leilani Estates, about a dozen miles from the volcano, the Hawaii County Civil Defence Agency said, making a total of four found so far.

Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes and one of five on the island, has been in constant eruption for 35 years. Lava flows from the volcano have covered 48 square miles, according to the US Geological Survey. Scientists say it is nearly impossible to predict how long an eruption will last.

On Thursday, Kilauea began spewing lava into residential areas after a series of earthquakes over the past week, the USGS reported.

Starting around 11 am on Friday, the island experienced a flurry of earthquakes, culminating in the massive magnitude 6.9 tremor. Residents in Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, home to about 1,700 people, were ordered to evacuate in the early hours of Friday after officials reported steam and lava erupting from fissures in the road, the Civil Defence agency said.

No injuries or deaths were reported, but Hawaii Governor David Ige activated the Hawaii National Guard to provide emergency help.

Keone Kalawe, 58, a native Hawaiian who was volunteering at an evacuation centre in Pahoa, shrugged off the latest quake as "just part of life over here."

His family was forced out of the village of Kapoho, about 6 miles from Pahoa, after an eruption in 1960, and he's witnessed other eruptions over the past three decades. So he has lived with lava, which is not dangerous, he says.

"I tell people,'You just have to sidestep.'"

A 492-foot-long fissure ripped open a road and spewed lava for about two hours in Leilani Estates at about 5.30 pm, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory said.

Dale Miller, 58, a resident of Leilani Estates, said police knocked on his door at 4 am and ordered an evacuation.

"There are lava tubes on our property," he said referring to the natural tunnels underground that drain lava during an eruption. "The whole thing is Swiss cheese."

"It felt like there was something under the house -– like a big snake was moving under the house," said Lee Begaye, 61, Miller's partner and housemate. Lee added this was the first time in eight years of living by the volcano that they'd had to evacuate.

One resident, Ikaika Marzo, told Hawaii News Now he saw "fountains" of lava as high as 125 feet.

Lava, which can reach temperatures of about 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit (1,150 Celsius), spread less than about 33 feet from the fissure, the observatory said.

Aerial footage showed a "curtain of fire" snaking through a forest on the island, said resident Jeremiah Osuna.

"You could just smell sulfur and burning trees and underbrush and stuff," he told Honolulu television station KHON.

Hawaii's governor has declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard.

The Kilauea volcano is one of five that make up Hawaii's Big Island, with a lake of molten lava at its peak and an eastern rift erupting near-continuously since 1983.

However explosions along its two active rifts are rare.

Asta Miklius, a geophysicist from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said there is no way to know exactly how long the eruption will continue.

"One of the parameters is going to be whether the summit magma reservoir starts to drain in response to this event, and that has not happened yet," Mr Miklius said.

"There is quite a bit of magma in the system. It won't be just an hours-long eruption probably... so we are watching that very, very closely."

The Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse on Monday, triggering a series of earthquakes and pushing the lava into new underground chambers.

The collapse caused magma to push more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) down the slope toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.

The USGS had raised the volcano alert in the area from a watch to a warning, reporting that "new ground cracks" were discovered in the late afternoon.

"White, hot vapor and blue fume emanated from an area of cracking in the eastern part of the subdivision," the agency wrote.

It emphasised that the early stages of fissure eruptions are "dynamic," and "additional vents and new lava outbreaks may occur."

"At this time it is not possible to say where new vents" could happen, it said.

The affected area is part of the Big Island's East Rift Zone, in which the Hawaii Volcano Observatory had "identified magma movement" and warned residents that seismic activities and eruptions could take place without notice.

"All areas bordering East Rift Zone at high risk for eruption," Hawaii County's mayor Harry Kim said on Twitter.

US Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was mobilising resources, as well as monitoring for forest fires, power outages and water supply issues.

Hawaii Island, or the Big Island, is the largest of the eight main islands that comprise the Pacific US state, an archipelago that includes hundreds of smaller volcanic islands.

Wei, who moved to Hawaii from California - known for its high earthquake risk - said the eruption was almost a "relief".

"People live here - the Hawaiians and local people have lived here forever," she said. "You know what's going on; we have warning systems. Everybody should be prepared."

Most of Kilauea's activity has been non-explosive, but a 1924 eruption belched ash and 10-ton rocks into the sky, leaving one man dead.

Puu Oo's 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring more than 1,500 feet high.

In the decades since, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles (kilometers) of land and destroyed many homes.