Two new cracks in the ground began spewing lava from Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii Saturday morning, and new cracks are emitting toxic gas, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
"The sulfur dioxide gas is very intense" and a "dangerous hazard in the area," said USGS volcano scientist Wendy Stovall.
The two new cracks raised the number of lava-flowing fissures that have emerged in the Leilani Estates neighborhood to eight since Thursday, Stovall said.
Lava flows have so far destroyed two homes.
The lava activity has been touch-and-go since lava started coming out of the ground in the rural residential area. Only one or two fissures have erupted with lava at any one time. Earlier Saturday morning, all fissures had stopped emitting lava when suddenly two new cracks formed.
A fissure forms when a crack opens in the ground and sulfur dioxide gas starts to pour out. The crack widens and lengthens, and the plume of the toxic gas becomes more intense, and lava can eventually begin to sputter out.
The first cracks that started erupting with lava Thursday afternoon reached heights of up to 100 feet. The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said that as of Friday afternoon, spatter and lava were accumulating primarily within a few dozen yards from the crack.
The volcanic instability at Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes and Hawaii Island's youngest, began Monday under the eastern flank of the volcano, an area known as the East Rift Zone.
It was the collapse of a lava-filled crater in the East Rift Zone Monday that set off this week's eruption. The contents of the crater seeped into a network of underground channels and flowed downhill _ and Thursday started gushing out of cracks that had opened in Leilani Estates, which is home to about 1,500 people.
The movement of magma under the surface in recent days triggered a magnitude 6.9 earthquake Friday as pressure built up, causing an earthquake fault to move. The fault plane that moved is the boundary between the ancient sea floor and Kilauea.
There have been more than 800 earthquakes in the Kilauea volcano region in the past seven days.
Evacuation orders remained in place for all residents of Leilani Estates and the neighboring community of Lanipuna Gardens. Officials warned that the high levels of toxic gas are especially dangerous to the elderly, young and people with weak respiratory systems, and said rescuers may not be able to help residents who refuse to leave.
