The long-silent Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia’s Afar region erupted on November 23, marking its first known activity in nearly 12,000 years. The eruption sent massive ash plumes soaring 14 km into the atmosphere, triggering alerts from volcanic monitoring centres and aviation authorities.
Situated about 800 km northeast of Addis Ababa, the volcano lies within the geologically active East African Rift Valley. Scientists confirmed that there were no records of eruptions throughout the Holocene, making this event an exceptionally rare geological occurrence.
The eruption lasted several hours, producing dense ash clouds that drifted across Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan, according to the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. Communities near the volcano reported heavy ash fall, though official information on casualties or displacement is still awaited.
Volcanologists, including Michigan Tech’s Simon Carn, and the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program verified the volcano’s long dormancy. The sudden awakening of Hayli Gubbi underscores the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the Afar region’s volcanic landscape, drawing global attention to its renewed activity.
