Hayli Gubbi volcano eruption; Ethiopia's Afar region (Nov 2025)

[Astronuc]

"The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia's Afar region about 500 miles northeast of Addis Ababa near the Eritrean border, erupted on Sunday for several hours." The "volcano in Ethiopia's northeastern region erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending thick plumes of smoke up to nine miles into the sky, the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) said."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/volcano-erupts-first-time-12-170053984.html

https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=221091

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayli_Gubbi

AP


So what caused the Hayli Gubbi volcano to erupt after nearly 12K years of dormancy? What are the implications for the region?

 

[nsaspook]

 

[Baluncore]

Hayli Gubbi is a minor player on a triple-plate boundary, in the Afar Depression, so activity will be associated with cyclic stress reduction. There are many other occasional players in that field.

It will be interesting to see what effect it has on the complex regional politics, when those in power, are disempowered by something bigger than all of them.

 

[Astronuc]

https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=221091

According to the Smithsonian site,

According to the UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET) response reports, explosive activity at Erta Ale (12 km NW) on 15 July was accompanied by an intrusion of magma along a dike that propagated SE towards Hayli Gubbi. Sentinel satellite imagery on 16 July showed a line of fissure vents that produced lava flows outside the S caldera of Erta Ale (6 km S of the northern pit craters). Another group of four fissure vents opened further along the rift to the SE, with the most distant only 2 km from the Hayli Gubbi crater. No lava lakes were seen in the pit craters after 18 July, but satellite data indicated uplift in the region during 21 July-3 August, and an anomalous white cloud within Hayli Gubbi’s crater was observed on 25 July. Satellite data showed that the white plume covered the crater floor in most of the images (several per month) at least through 18 November.

Some other Youtube videos have shown lava founatins, but I don't know if that is for show, or it is actually one of the fissure vents on Hayli Gubbi.

 

[Baluncore]

Why An "Extinct" Volcano Just Reawoke After 12,000 Years.
OzGeology. https://www.youtube.com/@OzGeologyOfficial

 

[Astronuc]

OzGeology. https://www.youtube.com/@OzGeologyOfficial

Some interesting commentary about the Afar region, that what happened was inevitable and has developed over millions of years, but the apparent consensus was that this area is 'dead', i.e., no significant seismic activity or major eruption expected, and due to the remote location, there has been no instrumentation in the vicinity of Hayli Gubbi.

Hayli Gubbi is a minor player on a triple-plate boundary,

I think it just the minor player was just promoted to the majors.

Afar triple junction​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_triple_junction

So, now does one expect geophysicists to place instrumentation around Hayli Gubbi?


From 2018 - Afar triple junction triggered by plume-assisted bi-directional continental break-up
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33117-3

 

[Baluncore]

I think it just the minor player was just promoted to the majors.

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes". Andy Warhol.
"Every dog has its day".
Tension opens gaps that get filled by local low-energy activity. Take a look on Google Earth, at the tension faulting in the 10 x 10 km square to the SE of Hayli Gubbi. 13°24'21N, 40°48'41E The trail of cones to the NW shows the migration of the tension activity across the field.

So, now does one expect geophysicists to place instrumentation around Hayli Gubbi?

There is no need, at this stage, to place people in harms way by working in that hostile political environment. Such activity would only encourage hostage taking.

Energy storage in brittle-rock tension is small, compared to energy storage under compression. That explains the reduced seismic activity of the region, and the reason it does not require more than satellite monitoring, of the rare volcanic dust clouds that threaten air traffic through the Gulf States, a region that is familiar with dust storms.