Hawaii volcano erupts; county issues evacuation orders for 10,000 people

Authorities had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, red ash rises from the Puu Oo vent on Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano after a magnitude-5.0 earthquake struck the Big Island, on May 3, 2018 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Up to 10,000 people have been asked to leave their homes on Hawaii’s Big Island following the eruption of the Kilauea volcano on Thursday that came after a series of recent earthquakes

County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning.

Follows a spree of quakes

The eruption comes after days of earthquakes rattled the area’s Puna district. A nearby school was closed due to the ongoing seismic activity and several roadways cracked under the strain of the constant temblors.

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) downslope toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.

USGS geologist Janet Babb said the magma crossed under Highway 130, which leads to a popular volcano access point, on Tuesday night.

Most of Kilauea’s activity has been non-explosive, but a 1924 eruption spewed ash and 10-ton (9-metric ton) rocks into the sky, leaving one man dead.

Puu Oo’s 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 1,500 feet high. In the decades since, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles (kilometers) of land and destroyed many homes.

"Hawaii volcano erupts; county issues evacuation orders "