Hawaii's Kilauea volcano exploded Thursday morning, sending an ash plume thousands of feet into the sky.

The eruption occurred shortly after 4 a.m. local time, Hawaii's Civil Defense Agency said. The eruption shot ash more than 30,000 feet up. Authorities evacuated people from around Kilauea's crater area and warned those in the vicinity of the volcano to take shelter.

Earlier this week, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued a rare "red alert" warning, which meant that a major eruption was imminent and that the ash clouds emitted from the volcano could affect air traffic. Those warnings have since come to fruition.