Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi Volcano Erupts After 12,000-Year Silence

A volcano in northeastern Ethiopia has erupted for the first time in an estimated 12,000 years, unleashing a dramatic plume of ash and smoke that soared approximately 14 kilometers into the sky and drifted across the Red Sea toward Yemen, Oman, and even southern Pakistan.

The eruption occurred at Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in the arid, tectonically active Afar region of Ethiopia near the border with Eritrea.

Local officials reported that there were no immediate human or livestock casualties, but the fallout has blanketed villages in ash, posing serious threats to grazing land and livelihoods for pastoralist communities.

Residents described a sudden blast and shock wave: “It felt like a bomb had been thrown,” one witness said, adding that the landscape was quickly covered in thick ash.

The region sits within the East African Rift, where tectonic plates are diverging. Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program confirmed there were no previously recorded eruptions during the Holocene epoch (the last 12,000 years).

The eruption triggered red-code alerts for aviation, with the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre tracking the ash plume as it disrupted air-traffic routes. Ethiopian authorities say they are assessing longer-term impacts to pasture, water supply, and tourism near the Danakil Depression.

This event marks a rare geological awakening in one of Earth’s most under-monitored volcanic zones, offering scientists a valuable opportunity to study a volcano emerging from millennia of dormancy.

At the same time, humanitarian and environmental concerns are mounting for the affected communities, whose resilience is tested amid ashfall, grazing loss, and limited local infrastructure.

Source: The Guardian; Associated Press