Ethiopian Volcano Erupts

[steve_bank]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/25/asia/ethiopia-hayli-gubbi-volcano-eruption-india-pakistan-intl-hk

A volcano in Ethiopia has erupted for the first known time in 10,000 years, spewing plumes of thick smoke and ash high into the sky and impacting air travel thousands of miles away in India.

Afar Triangle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar triple junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; that is, the earliest of the human clade, and it is thought by some paleontologists to be the cradle of the evolution of humans. The Depression overlaps the borders of Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia; and it contains the lowest point in Africa, Lake Assal, Djibouti, at 155 m (509 ft) below sea level.

The Afar Triangle is a cradle source of the earliest hominins. It contains a paleo-archaeological district that includes the Middle Awash region and numerous prehistoric sites of fossil hominin discoveries, including: the hominids and possible hominins, Ardi, or Ardipithecus ramidus, and Ardipithecus kadabba, see below; the Gawis cranium hominin from Gona; several sites of the world's oldest stone tools; Hadar, the site of Lucy, the fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarensis; and Dikika, the site of the fossilized child Selam, an australopithecine hominin.[2]

Africa is spitting apart.

The African Plate's overall rate is approximately 2cm/year to the northeast, but different parts of the continent are splitting at different speeds, most notably the East African Rift. In this rift zone, the Nubian and Somali plates are separating at about 7mm per year, while the Arabian plate is moving away from the Horn of Africa at approximately 1inch per year.