Geophysicist Victor Sardinha of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the magnitude 5.4 earthquake at 7:38 p.m. was centered eight miles west northwest of Kalapana.

No tsunami was generated, Sardinha said.

Big Island Civil Defense received no reports of damage.

Police said there were reports of rocks on the Hawai'i Belt Road along Route 19 from Hilo along the Hamakua Coast to Waimea.

University of Hawai'i at Hilo professor Don Eads and his son, Hoku, were in the new University Classroom Building when they felt the tremor.

"The building shook so hard we thought it was going to fall down," Eads told The Advertiser.

A Puna resident, preparing for the expected passby of Hurricane Flossie tomorrow, said of tonight's tremor:

"When it rains, it pours, doesn't it?" the resident said in an e-mail. "A looming hurricane and now some seismic activity!"

Sardinha said tonight's quake occurred within a 10-mile radius of the 7.5 magnitude quake in 1975, which generated a "wraparound" tsunami.

In addition to wiping out the black sand beach at Kalapana, tat tsunami resulted in deaths.

There was also a 6.2 magnitude quake at Kalapana in 1989, said Sardinha.