HONOLULU — Hundreds of earthquakes in Hawaii are shaking the eastern side of the Big Island, and authorities are concerned that the Kilauea Volcano could erupt. The US Geological Survey revised the magnitude of the most severe quake to a 5, from the 4.6 reported earlier. It hit Thursday morning and, within half an hour, two more quakes rattled the area, registering at 2.5 and 2.7. There have been a total of six smaller earthquakes since the biggest one, the agency said. County spokeswoman Janet Snyder said authorities have issued a mandatory evacuation order for a portion of Leilani Estates, a subdivision in the Puna District on Hawaii Island. The frequency of the minor earthquakes decreased Thursday compared to the preceding days, the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said in a statement

However, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has indicated that a volcanic eruption was "possible but not imminent," the agency said. Janet Babb, a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist, said residents in the area should remain vigilant because "lava could break to the surface, and it could do so fairly quickly.” She added that if an eruption did occur, it could be “pretty vigorous.”

The volcano sits to the southwest if of Kilauea, known as the Big Island, and is within a national park which is a popular with tourists and locals alike. Hawaii’s mayor’s office also released a statement regarding the same, confirming the county, state as well as federal officials were making preparations for a likely eruption. It’s located in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which has since closed off nearly 15,700 acres due to “the possibility of a new eruption and unstable geologic activity.” But most of the park remains open, the park said in a statement. Since Monday, hundreds of earthquakes -- most of them around 2.0 magnitude -- have been recorded in the area. Dozens of earthquakes rattled Hawaii’s Kīlauea Volcano as underground magma moved into a new area which is located in the east of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, a volcanic cone in the eastern rift zone of the Kīlauea volcano of the Hawaiian Islands, the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory officials said Wednesday. Since that collapse, about 250 earthquakes were reported in the area into Tuesday evening, according to a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory status report. The tremors have been going on for days now, jarring residents, who’ve been reporting nearly constant ground vibrations in some areas. “It has now become unnerving,” Carol Shepard, a resident, told CNN affiliate KHON. She said the flurry of earthquakes seemed to happen every minute. “It’d be like the house would shake. It’d be like somebody that weighs 300 pounds came in my living room, and jumped up and down,” she said. Residents in the area have also reported cracks emerging on roads. “An outbreak of lava from the lower East Rift Zone remains a possible outcome of the continued unrest,” according to USGS in a Wednesday night update. “At this time it is not possible to say with certainty if or where such an outbreak may occur, but the area downrift (east) of Pu’u ‘Ō’ō remains the most likely location.”

It’s not possible to predict where an eruption could occur, but the areas that could be affected include the communities of Nanawale Estates, Leilani Estates or Kapoho, the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency stated.
Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea begins erupting at the Leilani Estates subdivision, spurring a mandatory evacuation order of residents.