The eruption sent a massive ash cloud across Red Sea and South Asia, causing a thick ash cloud to reach India leading to diversion of several flights.
About Volcanic Eruptions
- Meaning: It is the expulsion of gases, rock fragments, and/or molten lava from within Earth through a vent onto the Earth’s surface or into the atmosphere.
- Earth’s Mantle (higher density layer below the solid crust) contains a weaker zone called asthenosphere, from where the molten rock materials called magma escapes out.
- Gasses dissolved in the magma expand causing a massive increase in pressure which pushes the magma up and forces its way through cracks/fissures in the volcano causing an eruption.
- Key Eruption Materials: Once magma starts moving towards the crust or it reaches the surface, it is called as lava (see infographic).
- Other materials that reaches the ground include pyroclastic debris, volcanic bombs, ash and dust and gases such as nitrogen compounds, sulphur compounds, etc.
- Recent Incidents: Sabancaya (Peru, 2025), Ruang (Indonesia, 2025), Kilauea (USA, 2024), Etna (Italy, 2025), etc.
- Major Consequences of Volcanic Eruptions
- Positive: Acts as source of obtaining direct information regarding earth’s interior, source of geothermal energy, temporary cooling of atmosphere due to shielding by aerosols, etc.
- Negative: Air Pollution and Acid Rain; accompanied disasters like earthquake due to seismic disturbances, loss of property and life, etc.