Hawaii volcano eruption: ORANGE alert as 31 earthquakes strike in 24 hours
THIRTY-ONE earthquakes have been recorded in the past 24 hours as lava continues to spew from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano with authorities issuing an orange alert.
By ALAHNA KINDRED
Express.co.uk
Mon, May 7, 2018
Hawaii’s Big Island has been put on orange alert meaning “major volcanic eruption is imminent, underway, or suspected but it poses limited hazards to aviation because of no or minor volcanic-ash emissions”, according to the US Geological Survey.
The USGS says earthquake activity in the summit is still at elevated levels.
Within a 48-hour period over the weekend, experts have detected 174 quakes within three miles of the volcano’s crater.
This comes after an eighth fissure erupted with lava fountains and flowed for more than half a mile at 2am GMT.
Despite the USGS saying seismicity has decreased, residents must still be on alert.
More than 1,500 residents have been told to flee to avoid being poisoned by life-threatening sulphur dioxide gas.
No major fatalities or injuries have been reported from the volcano, according to the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency.
Kilauea has destroyed 26 homes since it erupted on Thursday.
The volcano continues to spew lava and toxic gas from the fissures on Hawaii’s Big Island and some red-hot lava fountains were spouting up to 70 metres (230 feet) into the air.
Geologists say this type of volcanic activity looks similar to when eruptions continued for 88 days in the area and covered around 4,000 acres with lava.
Big Island officials fear it is impossible to know how long the volcanic activity will last.
Hawaii County civil defence administrator Taimadge Magno said: “It could be happening for a long time, or on the other hand mysteriously it could just end.”
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