JUST IN: In the scorching expanse of Ethiopia’s Afar region, where the Earth’s crust fractures like brittle glass, the Hayli Gubbi volcano shattered millennia of silence on November 23, 2025.
Perched about 500 kilometers northeast of Addis Ababa, near the Eritrean border, this modest 500-meter shield volcano—long presumed dormant—unleashed an explosive fury unseen in the Holocene epoch, which dawned roughly 12,000 years ago at the close of the last Ice Age.
Satellite imagery from NASA’s MODIS and advisories from the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre captured the spectacle: a colossal plume of ash and sulfur dioxide rocketing skyward to 14 kilometers, dwarfing the horizon and drifting eastward across the Red Sea toward Yemen, Oman, and as far as India and northern Pakistan.
Hayli Gubbi slumbers in the Afar Rift, a tectonic crucible where the African and Arabian plates wrench apart, birthing new seafloor in one of Earth’s most volatile zones.
Neighbors like the perpetually simmering Erta Ale, with its eternal lava lake, underscore the area’s restless geology, yet this eruption marks a rare awakening for Hayli Gubbi, with no prior Holocene activity etched in geological records, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.
Explosions began around 8:30 a.m. UTC, persisting for hours and blanketing the remote Danakil Depression in a hazy shroud. Local herders, eking out lives amid extreme heat exceeding 50°C, watched in awe and trepidation. Official Mohammed Seid reported no immediate casualties, but the ashfall threatens livestock forage and water sources, potentially unraveling fragile pastoral economies.
Aviation authorities issued alerts, diverting flights—including an IndiGo route to Abu Dhabi—as the plume menaced airspace. Volcanologists like Michigan Tech’s Simon Carn hailed the event as a “geological surprise,” detected solely through orbital sentinels due to the terrain’s inaccessibility.
As the ash dissipates, scientists anticipate monitoring for renewed tremors, pondering whether this heralds a brief flare or the stirrings of deeper unrest. In a world of accelerating climate pressures, such eruptions remind us of nature’s untamed pulse, where ancient forces defy human timelines and reshape distant skies.
A long-dormant volcano has just erupted for the first time in recorded history.
The Hayli Gubbi volcano in northern Ethiopia’s Afar Region erupted for the first time in at least 12,000 years early Sunday morning local time, according to Volcano Discovery, a website that tracks active volcanoes around the world.
The eruption spewed large plumes of ash and smoke over Ethiopia and across the Red Sea toward the Arabian Peninsula. Large amounts of sulfur dioxide were also emitted.
Satellite images appear to show a massive cloud of ash moving over the Red Sea.
Animation showing NASA Aqua and Suomi and NOAA-20 images of the November 23, 2025 eruption of Hayli Gubbi in Ethiopia. Credit: NASA, NOAA (combined by me).
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Toulouse, France, released an advisory to planes flying in the region, indicating that ash had reached altitudes of 49,000 feet.
Air traffic controllers as far as India were bracing for possible flight disruptions as a result of the drifting ash cover, according to reports.
There were no casualties as a result of the eruption, local officials told The Associated Press. But the livelihoods of nearby communities of livestock herders could be impacted because many villages have been covered in ash, leaving little land for the animals to graze on.
The volcano, located near the Eritrean–Ethiopian border, continued erupting as of Monday evening local time, but has since stopped, according to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center.
Images showed towering plumes of ash emerging from the volcano’s summit.
Hayli Gubbi, a broad, dome-shaped volcano with gentle slopes, has a summit height of more than 1,700 feet. It features a symmetrical scoria cone with a 650-foot-wide crater.
It is the southernmost volcano in the Erta Ale range, a volcanic chain in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, located where three tectonic plates meet. The Erta Ale range is known for its persistent lava lakes and is primarily made up of shield volcanoes.
It is the southernmost volcano in the Erta Ale range, a volcanic chain in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, located where three tectonic plates meet. The Erta Ale range is known for its persistent lava lakes and is primarily made up of shield volcanoes
The last-known eruption at Hayli Gubbi was previously listed as “unknown,” according to the Smithsonian Institution. But there is “credible” geologic evidence that the last eruption occurred more than 12,000 years ago.
A volcano in Ethiopia’s north-eastern region has erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending thick plumes of smoke up to 9 miles (14km) into the sky, and across the Red Sea toward Yemen and Oman.
The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia’s Afar region about 500 miles north-east of Addis Ababa near the Eritrean border, erupted on Sunday for several hours.
A local official, Mohammed Seid, said there were no casualties, but the eruption could have economic implications for the local community of livestock herders.
Seid said 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 volcano, which rises about 500 metres in altitude, sits within the Rift Valley, a zone of intense geological activity where two tectonic plates meet.
Ash clouds from the volcano drifted over Yemen, Oman, India and northern Pakistan, the VAAC said.
The Afar region is prone to earthquakes and a resident, Ahmed Abdela, said 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.
In videos shared on social media, which AFP could not immediately verify, a thick column of white smoke could be seen rising.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
Simon Carn, a volcanologist and professor at the Michigan Technological University, confirmed on Bluesky that Hayli Gubbi “has no record of Holocene eruptions”.
