PAHOA, Hawaii — The national park around Hawaii’s Kilauea was off-limits to visitors Friday for fear the volcano will blow its top in the coming days and hurl ash and boulders the size of refrigerators miles into the air. “If it goes up, it will come down,” said Charles Mandeville, volcano hazards co-ordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey. The volcano park closed indefinitely Thursday night because of the risks. There’s beauty and also darkness.”If the volcano blows its stack, communities about 2 miles (3 kilometres) away could be showered with pea-size rocks or dusted with nontoxic ash, said Tina Neal, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory. The small town of Volcano, Hawaii, population 2,500, is about 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) from the summit.

Source: National Post May 11, 2018 06:10 UTC