It was like a bomb went off somewhere, and then smoke and ash rose.' Dormant volcano Hayli Gubbi erupts in Ethiopia

A long-dormant volcano erupted in northern Ethiopia on Sunday morning. A column of volcanic ash rose 14 kilometers (9 miles) into the air and headed across the Red Sea to Yemen and Oman. The volcanic cloud is expected to reach India by evening, which has canceled several flights as a precaution and warned passengers of possible further disruption to air traffic. The Associated Press reported on Monday.

The eruption of the Hayli Gubbi volcano in Afar did not cause any casualties or injuries, but a layer of ash covered the neighboring village of Afdera. According to local authorities, there is no record of the volcano being active in the past. Volcanologists from the US Smithsonian Institution said that the Hayli Gubbi volcano has not had any known eruptions during the entire Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

The residents, who are mainly pastoralists, are now worried that their livestock will start dying as ash covers their pastures. One of the local residents, Ahmed Abdela, described a loud noise followed by a shock wave. “It was like a bomb went off somewhere, and then smoke and ash rose,” he told the AP.

An unspecified number of tourists and their guides were stranded in a village near the Danakil Desert, a tourist attraction, due to volcanic ash, Abdela added.

The Hayli Gubbi volcano, which is about 500 meters high, is located in the Afar region, about 800 kilometers northeast of Addis Ababa, near the border with Eritrea. The eruption lasted for several hours, AFP reported. The volcano is located in the Great Rift Valley, a zone of intense geological activity where two tectonic plates meet.