Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts: Lava spurts from cracks in road as thousands flee homes

Thousands of Hawaiians were evacuated from their homes on Thursday after a volcano on the Big Island erupted and lava spurted from cracks in the ground. 

The burst from Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, followed a 5.0 magnitude earthquake and opened a 492ft fissure in the ground.

Residents described fountains of lava shooting 150ft in the air as molten rock spread down paved streets in Leilani Estates, near the town of Pahoa.

Many left with just the clothes they were wearing.

“I looked around and asked myself ‘what’s valuable?’” Michael Hale told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I could see the plumes from my roof... In that moment, nothing looked valuable.”

Dangerously high levels of sulfur dioxide have also been detected in the air, the Hawaii County fire department warned.

Around 1,700 residents of Leilani Estates were ordered to evacuate on Thursday afternoon while some 10,000 people are in voluntary evacuation zones local officials said.

Henry Calio said he first sensed danger came when he saw cracks had emerged in the driveway of his retirement home. 

His wife Stella then received a call from an official ordering them to leave immediately. They now worry their home will be destroyed.

"This is our retirement home, this is our retirement dream," Mr Calio 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.

Kilauea volcano - Hawaii - locator map

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."

Lava spews from new ground cracks

The Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse 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.

How volcanoes erupt

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.

Eruptions can take place without notice

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."

History of Kilauea volcano eruptions

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.