Around 2,000 masks for protection were handed out on Hawaii as people living near Kilauea volcano braced for pulverised rock, glass and crystal to rain down on them after an eruption at the peak's summit.

The explosion came shortly after 4am on Thursday following two weeks of volcanic activity that sent lava flows into neighbourhoods and destroyed at least 26 homes.

Scientists said the eruption was the most powerful in recent days, though it probably lasted only a few minutes.

Lindsey Magnani, her fiance Elroy Rodrigues and their two children picked up masks for their family at Cooper Centre in Volcano, Hawaii, on Thursday afternoon.

She said both of her children - Kahele Rodrigues, two, and Kayden Rodrigues, three months old - were doing OK, but she and her fiance had both been sneezing all day.

"This morning it smelled like sulfur so we had to close all the windows," Ms Magnani said.

Most residents found only thin coatings of ash, if they saw any at all, as winds blew much of the 30,000-foot (9,100-metre) plume away from people.

"It was a grit, like a sand at the beach," said Joe Laceby, who lives in the town of Volcano a few miles to the north-east of Kilauea's summit.

The ash was a bit of an irritant, he said, but "not too bad".