November 24, 2025
2 minute read
Volcano erupts after 12,000 years of inactivity, leaving scientists scrambling
The Haili Gubbi volcano, long thought to be dormant, spewed ash nine miles into the sky during an eruption on Sunday.
This image shows the distant trench of Ethiopia where Hailey and Erta El, Ethiopia's most active volcano, are located.
A long-dormant volcano in Ethiopia spewed ash nine miles into the sky on Sunday, marking the volcano's first known major eruption in more than 12,000 years.
Understudied and located in the arid countryside of northeastern Ethiopia, the towering ash plume of the Hailey Gubbi volcano may hold clues to other, undetected eruptions during the period, says Juliet Biggs, a geoscientist at the University of Bristol in England.
“I would be very surprised if [more than 12,000 years ago] it’s actually the date of the last eruption,” says Biggs.
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Anyway, this is an eruption quite unusual. Haley Gubbi is a shield volcano similar to Hawaii. Long Mountain. These volcanoes are known for emitting streams of lava rather than spewing out giant plumes of ash.
“Seeing a large eruption column that looks like a big umbrella cloud is really rare in this area,” Biggs says.
Hayley Gubbi lies in the East African Rift Zone, a region where the African and Arabian plates are moving apart at a rate of about 0.4 to 0.6 inches per year, says Arianna Soldati, a volcanologist at North Carolina State University. If the two plates continue to move apart, the Arabian Sea and Rift Valley will eventually become a new ocean.
As the Earth's crust rips apart, it stretches and thins, and hot rocks rise from the mantle, melting into magma toward the surface.
“As long as the conditions for magma formation exist, a volcano can erupt even if it hasn't had an eruption in 1,000 or 10,000 years,” Soldati says.
Researchers there was some idea Biggs says it was possible that Hailey Gubbi could erupt. In July, another active volcano nearby, Erta Ale, erupted in a shower of ash. At the same time, satellite data revealed ground movement indicating that intruding magma from Erta Ale had advanced more than 18 miles below the surface, beneath Khaili Gubbi and beyond. Biggs and her staff white puffy clouds were also recorded at its top, and the ground near the volcano rose several centimeters.
Sunday's eruption, which poses little danger to humans given its remote location, kicked off a scientific battle. Derek Keir, an earth scientist at the University of Southampton in England, was in Ethiopia when the volcano erupted; on Monday he collected samples of the new ash. This will help determine what type of magma caused the eruption, Biggs said. Lava flows from the volcano may also reveal whether Haley Gubbi has indeed been silent for 12,000 years.
“It really just shows how understudied this region is,” Biggs says.
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