(MENAFN) The long-inactive Hayli-Gubbi volcano, situated in northeastern Ethiopia, has erupted for the first time in more than ten millennia, VolcanoDiscovery reports.

The Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) stated that the eruption commenced around 8:30 a.m. UTC on Sunday, with explosive activity persisting for several hours.

Ash plumes were propelled to approximately 45,000 feet (13.7 kilometers) into the atmosphere.

Local official Mohammed Seid told a news agency that no human or livestock deaths have been reported, though numerous villages are now coated in ash, leaving grazing animals with very limited food sources.

According to a media outlet, Professor Atalay Ayele from Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Geophysics, Space Science and Astronomy explained that the eruption resulted from the movement and interaction of molten rock beneath the region.

VAAC maps indicate that lower-altitude ash is drifting toward Djibouti and Yemen, while higher-altitude material is moving eastward across Oman and over the Arabian Sea.

The uppermost ash layers are expected to reach as far as Iran, Pakistan, and India.
Hayli-Gubbi had no recorded eruptions since the beginning of the Holocene epoch roughly 12,000 years ago, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.

Experts cited by multiple news outlets noted that the eruption produced a substantial ash plume extending toward Yemen and Oman.

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