A spike in seismic activity in Ethiopia’s Afar region over the past year preceded the rare eruption of the Hayli Gubbi volcano, which sent dust and ash sweeping across nearby villages on Sunday morning.
Professor Atalay Ayele, head of the seismology department at the Institute of Geophysics, Space Science and Astronomy at Addis Ababa University, said researchers had been tracking increased tremors near the Erta Ale range, where the volcano is located.
“Erta Ale is a magma lake, so the magma is very close to the surface,” Ayele told Reuters on Tuesday. “This eruption occurred with minimal earthquake activity, but it was energetic enough to create a massive volcanic plume in the atmosphere.”
While volcanic activity in the Afar region is not unusual, Ayele noted that there is no recorded history of Hayli Gubbi erupting.
“A volcano is considered active if it has erupted in the last 10,000 years. There is no record of an eruption from this volcano it may have been inactive, or previous eruptions went unnoticed due to the remoteness of the Afar desert,” he explained.
Although considered relatively small, Sunday’s eruption released “kilotons of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere,” Ayele said, with winds carrying the particles across vast distances from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to as far as India.
The ash cloud has disrupted air travel, prompting Air India to cancel several flights on Tuesday. Air Alaska also suspended multiple routes to Middle Eastern destinations such as Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
Ethiopian Airlines, however, said in an emailed response to Reuters that its operations had not been affected.
Ayele warned that volcanic ash poses significant safety risks for aviation, including engine damage and reduced visibility.