A magnitude 5.6 earthquake has struck the summit of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano summit, sending a plume of ash and rock about 10,000 feet into the sky.
Hawaii County officials said the Wednesday eruption could cause ash to fall over some populated areas, including the towns of Volcano and Pahala.
The temblor came just hours after U.S. Geological Survey scientist Wendy Stovall said another eruption was imminent.
Increased earthquake activity in the region earlier in the day fit what Stovall called a "pattern" for explosive eruptions at Kilauea's summit.
No tsunami was generated by the earthquake, officials said.
A live webcam stationed at the summit shows volcanic gas and ash pouring from the crater vent.
Most area residents have already evacuated.
Lava has been flowing from fissures that broke out in neighborhoods last month.
County officials said the two subdivisions have 279 homes, and most are feared destroyed from the most recent lava flows in the low-laying area.
Molten rock from the erupting Kilauea volcano already has destroyed at least 117 homes in the Lanipuna Gardens and Leilani Estates neighborhoods where lava surfaced more than a month ago. The total number of homes destroyed in the eruption stands at about 400.
In Hawaii, previous eruptions have destroyed small towns, but nothing on the scale of this outbreak. Lava flows destroyed homes and other buildings in the same area in 1955 and 1960, but the town of Kapoho was less densely populated at that time.
Between 1983 and 2014, a Kilauea eruption razed homes in and around the town of Kalapana. Over the course of about eight months in 1990, 214 homes were destroyed in that area. One home was lost in a separate 2014 lava flow in the commercial hub of Pahoa.
Even major explosive eruptions like that of Washington state's Mount St. Helens in 1980 didn't result in the same number of homes lost. That volcano and others in the region that have had recent eruptions are very remote with few people living nearby.
(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
