Experts On Why Volcano Hayli Gubbi Erupted After 12,000 Years

A long-dormant volcano in northern Ethiopia erupted on Sunday, sending towering ash plumes across the Red Sea towards Yemen, Oman, and even parts of India. The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in the Afar region about 800 km northeast of Addis Ababa, remained quiet for nearly 12,000 years. It erupted for several hours and blanketed the neighbouring village of Afdera in ash.

Experts described the occurrence as highly unusual, saying how “understudied” the region's volcanic activity was.

Arianna Soldati, a volcanologist at North Carolina State University, told Scientific American Magazine, “So long as there are still the conditions for magma to form, a volcano can still have an eruption even if it hasn't had one in 1,000 years or 10,000 years.”

Hayli Gubbi is a shield volcano situated in the East African Rift Zone, where the African and Arabian tectonic plates are gradually pulling apart at a rate of 0.4 to 0.6 inches per year.

Juliet Biggs, an earth scientist at the University of Bristol in England, said, “I would be really surprised if [more than 12,000 years ago] really is the last eruption date.”

Biggs said that while no confirmed eruptions occurred during this period, satellite images suggest the volcano may have recently emitted lava.

“To see a big eruption column, like a big umbrella cloud, is really rare in this area,” she added.

Local officials said there were no casualties, but the fallout may severely affect pastoral communities.

⚠️ Ethiopia: The Hayli Gobi volcano erupted today for the first time in ten thousand years and sent ash up to a height of 15 km.???????? pic.twitter.com/aiPVhhO4rr

— Dr. Fundji Benedict (@Fundji3) November 24, 2025

Scientists earlier observed signs that an eruption at Hayli Gubbi could happen. In July, the nearby Erta Ale volcano erupted, triggering ground movement beneath Hayli Gubbi and revealing magma intrusion almost 30 km below the surface. Biggs and her collaborators also recorded white puffy clouds at Hayli Gubbi's summit and slight ground uplift before Sunday's eruption.

Derek Keir, an earth scientist at the University of Southampton, who happened to be in Ethiopia during the eruption, collected ash samples on Monday. Biggs said these samples will help determine the magma type and whether the volcano had truly been dormant for 12,000 years. “It really just shows how understudied this region is,” she said.

The eruption sent ash clouds up to 14 km into the sky, affecting Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan, according to the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in France. Rising approximately 500 metres, Hayli Gubbi sits within the geologically active Rift Valley, where tectonic plates converge.

The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program notes that Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, the current geological epoch that began roughly 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.