The Hayli Gubbi shield volcano in Ethiopia’s desolate Afar region near Eritrea unexpectedly erupted with a thunderous explosion yesterday (Nov 23) for the first time in at least 10,000 years — sending a column of ash more than 45,000 feet into the stratosphere that is heading east toward Yemen and Oman on its way toward India. From CBS News:
Simon Carn, a volcanologist and professor at the Michigan Technological University, confirmed on Bluesky that the ash cloud was "spreading rapidly east in the subtropical jet stream, over the Arabian Sea towards NW India and Pakistan."
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The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began around 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Carn confirmed on Bluesky that Hayli Gubbi "has no record of Holocene eruptions."
A local administrator, Mohammed Seid, said there were no casualties, but the eruption could have economic implications for the local community of livestock herders.
Seid told The Associated Press that there was no previous record of an eruption by the Hayli Gubbi volcano, and that he fears for the livelihoods of residents.
"While no human lives and livestock have been lost so far, many villages have been covered in ash and as a result their animals have little to eat," he said.
The Afar region is prone to earthquakes and a resident, Ahmed Abdela, told the AP he heard a loud sound and what he described as a shock wave.
"It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash," he said.
Africa is not usually thought of as being particularly prone to volcanic eruptions, even though there are a fair number scattered up and down the East African Rift Zone where Eastern Africa and Arabia are slowly moving away from the rest of Africa due to the actions of Plate Tectonics.
A quick scan of global volcanic eruptions with a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 4 or higher over the past 500 years compiled by wikipedia indicates just one other such event of that magnitude took place in Africa — and interestingly enough, it was also located in the same general area, but on Eritrea’s side of the border 14 years ago, the 2011 Nabro eruption. Even more interesting, it too had no previous record of erupting during the Holocene.
Unlike the Nabro stratovolvano from which these types of explosive eruptions can often be expected, Hayli Gubbi is a shield volcano more analogous to Kilauea here in Hawaii, which is usually characterized by nonexplosive lava flows.
And just in case people were wondering if volcanos in general seem to be more in the news than usual these days, that also appears to be the case. The long-term average of VEI-4 or larger events during the 20th century has tended to be about half-a-dozen per decade — with a high number of 9 reached in the 1880’s (including Krakatoa) and 1980’s (Mt. St. Helens). But in the 2010’s, a new high of 12 such events were recorded, and that is almost certainly bound to be eclipsed in the 2020’s where this would mark the 9th event with nearly half the decade still to go.
