The eruption of a long dormant volcano has been described as ‘feeling like a bomb’ by locals as a local community reports the volcano’s eruption has blanketed their village in ash and soot
A long-dormant volcano has erupted for the first time in around 12,000 years, blanketing a village in ash and soot as residents have described the sound of the eruption to a bomb.
The eruption from the volcano – which is its first in modern history – spewed massive plumes of ash into the sky and coated the neighbouring village of Afdera in dust.
The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia in the Afar region near the Eritrean border erupted for several hours on Sunday morning. Ash clouds released from the volcano’s eruption drifted out of the country reaching as far as the Red Sea, Yemen, Oman and India.
A local resident Ahmed Abdela said: “It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash. While no human lives and livestock have been lost so far, many villages have been covered in ash, and as a result, their animals have little to eat.”
The eruption has caused widespread travel disruption in neighbouring countries and continents. However there have been no flight cancellations in Ethiopia, which is one of Africa’s biggest flight hubs. Ash from the eruption has prompted several airlines, including national carrier Air India, IndiGo and Akasa, as well as Dutch carrier KLM, to cancel their flights as a precaution.
Air India has cancelled 11 flights on Monday and Tuesday while Akasa dropped flights scheduled on the same day to Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of India Meteorological Department, told the BBC: “The affected altitude is between 8.5km (5.2 miles) and 15km above the sea level.” He added: “It will temporarily affect satellite functions and flight operations. But it is unlikely to affect weather conditions or air quality. It reached northern India last night and seems to be headed towards China.”
Skymet Weather, a private agency, has said that measuring the degree of volcanic ash contamination caused by the eruption has been difficult. This is because The Hayli Gubbi volcano did not provide enough time for preparations to be made to monitor the full extent of its contamination.
GP Sharma, president (meteorology and climate change) at Skymet Weather has said: “Measuring contamination caused by volcanic eruptions take a lot of preparation. Sensors have to be deployed in advance. This particular volcanic eruption did not provide any room for preparation. So the level of contamination is not know.”
Skymet Weather has said it is difficult to predict how long it will take for the ash to disperse. However the IMD estimates Delhi’s skies should clear from the ash by Tuesday evening.
