A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck in Katla volcano at 4.40 this morning followed by a magnitude 3.7 quake only one minute later, at 04.41. According to the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) a few smaller a few aftershocks followed. In just the last 24 hours IMO has recorded around 200 earthquakes in Katla.
Katla has historically erupted at least once every century and as its last eruption was in 1918 the volcano has been keeping geologists, volcanoes enthusiasts and Iceland's Civil Protection on their toes for a while. Until 1918, eruptions at an interval of 13 to 95 years marked Katla’s history.
But although Katla is behaving badly there are no signs of volcanic tremors according to IMO.
Under thick cap of ice
Katla is located below the ice cap of Mýrdalsjökull glacier in South Iceland and is one of Iceland's most feared volcanoes due to its size and how close it is to village Vík í Mýrdal (population 318). Vík is a very popular travel destination on the south coast. It’s located at the bottom of the volcano, only 15 km (9.3 mi) away from Mýrdalsjökull glacier’s edge.
IMO has several monitoring networks around the glacier and via twenty-four-hour monitoring, every effort will be made to issue a timely warning in the event of a volcanic eruption.
Another major problem with Katla is the thick ice sheet above the volcano. When the hot magma will eventually rise up beneath the glacier it will cause massive melting of the ice and violent steam explosions. The resulting glacial outburst flood could be a danger to the village.
Normally the magma would create relatively harmless lava flows on land, but the steam explosions in the glacier change the nature of the eruption to explosive, with production of huge volumes of ash that are dispersed widely in the atmosphere.
Red more: Iceland's most notorious volcano is kept under close surveillance
When Katla’s neighbouring volcano, the much smaller Eyjafjallajökull glacier, erupted in 2010 the consequences were felt around the northern hemisphere. The dispersal of the ash cloud shut down all aviation across the North Atlantic for one week, 313 airports were closed and 104,000 international flights between Europe and North America were canceled.
The volcano has sent us a similar reminder now and again in the last few decades
Earthquakes in Katla started to pick up the pace earlier this summer. On 29th August two magnitude 4.5 quakes struck in the northern rim of the caldera. They are the biggest earthquakes in the volcano since 1977.
When asked what is going on in the volcano, Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, professor of geophysics at the faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland explained as the quakes’ depth is rather shallow and there are no signs of expansion in the caldera or increase in geothermal activity, scientist are not to worried.
The distance between Katla and Reykjavík is around 180 km (112 mi).
A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck in Katla volcano at 4.40 this morning followed by a magnitude 3.7 quake only one minute later, at 04.41. According to the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) a few smaller a few aftershocks followed. In just the last 24 hours IMO has recorded around 200 earthquakes in Katla.
Katla has historically erupted at least once every century and as its last eruption was in 1918 the volcano has been keeping geologists, volcanoes enthusiasts and Iceland's Civil Protection on their toes for a while. Until 1918, eruptions at an interval of 13 to 95 years marked Katla’s history.
But although Katla is behaving badly there are no signs of volcanic tremors according to IMO.
Under thick cap of ice
Katla is located below the ice cap of Mýrdalsjökull glacier in South Iceland and is one of Iceland's most feared volcanoes due to its size and how close it is to village Vík í Mýrdal (population 318). Vík is a very popular travel destination on the south coast. It’s located at the bottom of the volcano, only 15 km (9.3 mi) away from Mýrdalsjökull glacier’s edge.
IMO has several monitoring networks around the glacier and via twenty-four-hour monitoring, every effort will be made to issue a timely warning in the event of a volcanic eruption.
Another major problem with Katla is the thick ice sheet above the volcano. When the hot magma will eventually rise up beneath the glacier it will cause massive melting of the ice and violent steam explosions. The resulting glacial outburst flood could be a danger to the village.
Normally the magma would create relatively harmless lava flows on land, but the steam explosions in the glacier change the nature of the eruption to explosive, with production of huge volumes of ash that are dispersed widely in the atmosphere.
Red more: Iceland's most notorious volcano is kept under close surveillance
When Katla’s neighbouring volcano, the much smaller Eyjafjallajökull glacier, erupted in 2010 the consequences were felt around the northern hemisphere. The dispersal of the ash cloud shut down all aviation across the North Atlantic for one week, 313 airports were closed and 104,000 international flights between Europe and North America were canceled.
The volcano has sent us a similar reminder now and again in the last few decades
Earthquakes in Katla started to pick up the pace earlier this summer. On 29th August two magnitude 4.5 quakes struck in the northern rim of the caldera. They are the biggest earthquakes in the volcano since 1977.
When asked what is going on in the volcano, Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, professor of geophysics at the faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland explained as the quakes’ depth is rather shallow and there are no signs of expansion in the caldera or increase in geothermal activity, scientist are not to worried.
The distance between Katla and Reykjavík is around 180 km (112 mi).
