The Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia, located about 500 miles from the capital city of Addis Ababa, erupted on Sunday for the first time in about 12,000 years.
The eruption was not too devastating as such events go, but it did release an enormous plume of ash, which rode the subtropical jet stream and quickly expanded to cover parts of Yemen, Oman, India, and Pakistan. Air India announced it canceled at least 11 flights on Tuesday due to concerns over the cloud.
“The affected altitude is between 8.5 kilometers (5.2 miles) and 15 kilometers above the sea level,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). “It will temporarily affect satellite functions and flight operations. But it is unlikely to affect weather conditions or air quality. It reached northern India last night and seems to be headed towards China.”
The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation advised pilots to be on the lookout for telltale signs of volcanic ash affecting their aircraft, including strange odors, visible smoke in the cabin, and “engine performance anomalies.”
Local officials in Ethiopia reported no casualties or damage from the eruption, but voiced concerns about how the ash cloud could affect local farmers and herders.
“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,” said local administrator Mohammed Seid.
Residents said the sudden eruption was more akin to a bomb going off than an earthquake. The area is prone to seismic activity, since it is the “triple junction” of three tectonic plates.
The eruption was so sudden and unexpected that scientists were not prepared to measure its precise impacts.
Hayli Gubbi is a little over 1,600 feet high, standing as the southernmost volcano in the Erta Ale Range. Other volcanoes in the range are active, including the Erta Ale mountain itself, which is about nine miles northwest of Hayli Gubbi and boasts the oldest lava lake in the world. Volcanologists say Erta Ale erupted in 1967 and never really stopped. It has proven difficult to study because of harsh local conditions, including triple-digit temperatures and minimal rainfall.
Another volcano in the range called Dabbahu erupted in 2005 and touched off a string of earthquakes. One of the reasons Sunday’s sudden eruption caused no fatalities or damage is that very few people are willing to live in the seismically jittery region.
Hayli Gubbi displays all the geological attributes of a volcano, but scientists have found no evidence that it erupted during the Holocene Epoch – the current era of the world, which began 11,700 years ago. Sunday’s eruption lasted for several hours.
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