In a dramatic rupture of geological history, Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano roared back to life this week, erupting for the first time in nearly 12,000 years and unleashing a towering column of ash that pierced skies up to nine miles high. The event, recorded by the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), stunned residents and scientists alike.

“It felt like a sudden bomb,” locals described, as the mountain — long thought to be permanently dormant — lit up the desert horizon of Ethiopia’s Afar region. The eruption lasted several hours on Sunday, sending ash and gases surging into the atmosphere from a peak that rises roughly 1,500 feet within the East African Rift Valley — one of the most tectonically restless places on Earth, where continental plates are famously tearing apart.

The massive ash plume did not stay local. Winds carried volcanic debris hundreds of miles beyond Ethiopia, drifting over Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan. The VAAC released tracking maps that charted the ash cloud’s path as it moved east across the Arabian Sea.

Commercial aviation quickly felt the impact. Air India grounded at least 11 flights as visibility and air quality deteriorated, while budget carrier Akasa Air suspended services on select Middle East routes, according to Reuters. Volcanologist Simon Carn of Michigan Technological University confirmed on Bluesky that the plume was “spreading rapidly east in the subtropical jet stream, over the Arabian Sea towards NW India and Pakistan.”

The eruption marks one of the most significant geological awakenings in recent Ethiopian history — a stark reminder that even after millennia of silence, the forces shaping the planet beneath our feet are never truly still.