Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Scientists are predicting an eruption that shot ash nearly 9 kilometres into the sky could be the first of a series of powerful explosions to rock Hawai’i’s Kilauea volcano, reports SBS News.

Hawai’i’s Kilauea volcano has spewed ash nearly 9 kilometres into the air and scientists have warned this could be the first of a violent string of explosions in the crater.

“This has relieved pressure temporarily,” USGS geologist Michelle Coombs told a news conference in Hilo.

“We may have additional larger, powerful events.”

VIEW MORE: What the Mt Kilauea eruptions mean for climate change

Residents of the Big Island were warned to take shelter from the ash fallout as toxic gas levels spiked in a small southeast area where lava has burst from the ground since the eruption began two weeks ago, authorities said.

The wind could carry Kilauea’s ash plume as far as Hilo, the Big Island’s largest city and a major tourism centre, the County of Hawaii Civil Defense warned in an alert.

“Protect yourself from ash fallout,” it said.

Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and one of five on Hawai’i’s Big Island.

It started erupting on May 3, prompting some 2000 people to flee from their mountainside homes.

Geologists said the 4:15am explosion was likely to be the first in a series of steam-driven explosions last seen in 1924, rather than “the big one” that nervous residents had been fearing.

A spike in toxic sulphur dioxide gas closed schools around the village of Pahoa, 40 km east of the volcano, where fissures have destroyed 37 homes and other structures and forced about 2000 residents to evacuate, health officials said.

National guard troops were forced to put on gas masks at a nearby road intersection, according to a Reuters reporter.

USGS geologists and staff were evacuated from the Kilauea summit shortly before the blast and a webcam showed a grey plume of ash and chunks of magma known as pyroclasts that showered the volcano’s slopes.

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake that shook the Big Island on Friday and was felt as far away as Oahu was the strongest tremor in Hawai’i in 43 years, reports Hawai’i News Now.

The Friday quake happened about 12:30 pm and was centered on the south flank of Kilauea volcano, which has been erupting and spewing lava into Leilani Estates since Thursday.

Dr Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, said the quake was the largest to strike the big island of Hawai’i since November 1975, when a tremor centered 3.2 km off Kalapana Beach was measured at a magnitude 7.2.

He said the small tsunami waves did not pose any threat but underscored the importance of vigilance as the Kilauea eruptions continue.

That quake caused a local tsunami that killed two people and injured several others.

Another pair of quakes in 2006 — the largest of which was a magnitude 6.7 — were centred off the northwest coast of Hawai’i island and caused an island-wide power outage on Oahu that lasted 19 hours.

The strongest quake ever to hit Hawaii was a 7.9-magnitude. It was recorded on April 4, 1868.