EARTHQUAKES are damaging roads and buildings on Hawaii’s Big Island as ash emissions stream from Kilauea volcano.

The strongest shaking measured as a 4.4-magnitude earthquake. The floor of the summit crater has also dropped about 3ft, as the threat of a strong, explosive eruption loomed.

The ground was deflating as the crater’s lava levels fell, causing stress faults around the crater to move, resulting in the earthquakes. More were expected.

Ash spewed from the summit at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, though emissions decreased from Tuesday.

There were bursts of ash coming from the crater causing it to fall downwind to several communities, though there were only trace amounts, said the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO).

Ash plumes on Tuesday had spouted as high as 12,000ft into the air, scientists said.

These plumes are separate from the lava eruptions happening roughly 25 miles away from summit, where about 20 lava fissures have destroyed more than two dozen homes and forced the evacuation of about 2000 residents.

Dense, large rocks roughly 2ft in diameter were found in a car park a few hundred yards away from Kilauea’s summit crater, which reflect the “most energetic explosions yet observed and could reflect the onset of steam-driven explosive activity”, the HVO said.