[Dave Hancox]

Volcano Activity in Iceland on Wednesday, 11 April, 2012 at 03:15An Icelandic volcano even bigger than the one that shut down European air travel when it erupted in 2010 is showing signs of activity, scientists say. Erratic movements of the surface of the volcano, measured by precise GPS instruments, and bursts of high earthquake activity have been recorded beneath Katla's caldera, researchers said. Both are possible signs that magma has risen to shallower depths beneath the caldera, they said. While the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull left millions of travelers stranded across Europe and cost airlines an estimated $200 million a day for six days, signs of high activity beneath the much larger, neighboring Katla caldera are a possible sign of an impending eruption that could be more dangerous, Andy Hooper at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands said. Historically, Katla has erupted on average of every 60 years but has not had a significant eruption since 1918, Hooper said. Also, he said, eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull in 1821-23 and 1612 were followed within months by eruptions of Katla, and Katla's 1918 eruption produced five times as much ash as the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull one.



http://hisz.rsoe.hu/...tmap/index2.php

Not sure if this is just another rumble or if something is going to develop. I know a few members have an interest so thought I would post see if they can give some more information as I haven't managed to find more info

[Tony Sales]

Im very interested to see what happens thanks for posting Dave. My mum told me that its last eruption caused quite widespread problems across Scotland, farmers not being able to grow crops etc... I wonder what could happen this time... scary stuff

[Dave Hancox]

Plenty up to date info about Icelands volcanoes here on this blog but none about Katla yet. http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

[Chris Alder]

Not really alot on Jon's blog about Katla to be honest, some of the rumblings below are quite possibly linked to the start of seasonal melt of the glacier on top of Katla.

[pete scott]

Katla going up is bad news all round, it was even referred to as "the gateway to Hell". At the turn of the 20th century it blew it's stack & with the ash cloud came a poisonous gas that killed over 20 people in Scotland, crops failed that summer not only in Scotland but also for parts of Europe or so the history lesson i had told me. Think you could kiss air travel goodbye for a few months if it does go, so long as it waits till May 18th, by which time i'll have landed in the States & eating donuts & chasing tornados lol. This happened 2 years ago with Eyjafjallajokull, sitting at Heathrow in departures & watching the news headlines as all airports in Scotland were closed then Newcastle (had 90 mins to go by that stage) then Manchester (45 mins to go). We boarded & the captain made the strangest of take offs i've ever experienced & climbed at an insane rate & went out over South Wales, think we were one of the last flights out of the UK.

[Martyn Wells]

there have been no increases in earthquakes, deformation, harmonic tremor or GPS displacement around Katla. I think this a rehash of a recent article from the Guardian from memory.

[Dave K]

Martyn Wells, on 11 April 2012 - 17:14, said:

there have been no increases in earthquakes, deformation, harmonic tremor or GPS displacement around Katla. I think this a rehash of a recent article from the Guardian from memory.

It is the problem when words like "imminent" or "impending" are used that the context of geological timescale is forgotten, so it's a good attention grabber for the media at large on a slack news day. That said, it is obviously imperative to make contingency planning for such an eruption.

[ldavidcooke]

Hey All,

You know that it is very possible if the water intrusion in the Katla vent is low the eruptive force could likewise be muted. It is possible that the rise of Magma could have been slower then usual and the activity two years ago could have been the collapse of the near surface chambers, thus closing off the vent. We won't know for sure until either the vent emerges elsewhere or we have a very high energy release occurs. So far it looks pretty tame...

[Ian Williams]

pete scott, on 11 April 2012 - 16:46, said:

Katla going up is bad news all round, it was even referred to as "the gateway to Hell". At the turn of the 20th century it blew it's stack & with the ash cloud came a poisonous gas that killed over 20 people in Scotland, crops failed that summer not only in Scotland but also for parts of Europe or so the history lesson i had told me. Think you could kiss air travel goodbye for a few months if it does go, so long as it waits till May 18th, by which time i'll have landed in the States & eating donuts & chasing tornados lol. This happened 2 years ago with Eyjafjallajokull, sitting at Heathrow in departures & watching the news headlines as all airports in Scotland were closed then Newcastle (had 90 mins to go by that stage) then Manchester (45 mins to go). We boarded & the captain made the strangest of take offs i've ever experienced & climbed at an insane rate & went out over South Wales, think we were one of the last flights out of the UK.

Best it waits til after the 23rd May lol, same problem! I too remember waiting anxiously when we flew out in May 2010, praying it would be OK to fly

[PK2]

Martyn Wells, on 11 April 2012 - 17:14, said:

there have been no increases in earthquakes, deformation, harmonic tremor or GPS displacement around Katla. I think this a rehash of a recent article from the Guardian from memory.

there was certainly a recent story in the Telegraph about it (found using the churnalism website).

[PK2]

Dave Hancox, on 11 April 2012 - 08:34, said:

Plenty up to date info about Icelands volcanoes here on this blog but none about Katla yet. http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

Jon's now caught up with this story - http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=2456 .

[Martyn Wells]

Hey Dave

There is no evidence of any vent at Katla. There is no persistent harmonic tremor. And they'd likely be more than 1 if it did erupt as Katla has had many eruption site within and outside the caldera.

Also the talk and speculation is always of a major eruption, Katla is equally as capable of a VEI2 as a VEI4.

Thanks for the correction pk2, Eric klemmeti has also posted about it on his wired blog.

[Dave Hancox]

I was a bit disappointed with the report from RSOE as they are normally reliable. I see they have also removed the report from their site now.

[PK2]

Martyn, could have been both, I don't read either regularly so only had what the web search found .
Dave, they wouldn't be the first to be "taken in" by a story that isn't what it seemed. That they've removed the report is a good sign IMHO. These days for I tend to look to the blogs run by the likes of Jon for news on volcanoes rather than the news site. Much as a look here for weather reports before looking elsewhere .

[ldavidcooke]

Martyn Wells, on 14 April 2012 - 07:18, said:

Hey Dave

There is no evidence of any vent at Katla. There is no persistent harmonic tremor. And they'd likely be more than 1 if it did erupt as Katla has had many eruption site within and outside the caldera.

Also the talk and speculation is always of a major eruption, Katla is equally as capable of a VEI2 as a VEI4.

Thanks for the correction pk2, Eric klemmeti has also posted about it on his wired blog.

Hey Martyn,

No active venting we are aware of.... (I see I am going to have to change my login to initals...) I was referencing the melt pool and the 3.X level activity about 18mths ago. I suspected that the dykes leading to the old vent may have collapsed then.

The result was a inverted caldera and some heat resulting in the depression/melt activity. Since then mostly the activiy is as most have suggested here, seasonal resettling.

Concur, that until the activity demonstrates magma movement and expansion of the caldera it is unlikely for a release. More to the point though unlikely greater then a VEI-4, I suspect when it finally does go it will be spectacular! (Sorry, or should I have said disasterous...?)

[Martyn Wells]

Latest update from Iceland. Another minor glacial flood with increased conductivity occurred over the weekend at Katla, in conjunction with another minor swarm of near surface quakes <m3.0, pointing to evidence that magma is now at the surface under the glacier. The question is now is this just a minor effusion, or a sign of things to come. This morning there is another ongoing swarm of quakes...so we'll need to see if this is followed by another jokulhlaup or not.

Elsewhere, a m3.1 quake followed by a series of aftershock occurred in in the Askja system, following on from other recent events discussing an ice free glacial lake in the area. These quakes were primarily around 15km deep, pointing perhaps to a new dyke intrusion.

[Uskys]

I reported elsewhere that Iceland had a 4.8mag earthquake earlier too Martyn. see here

[Martyn Wells]

Tremor measurements and most recent quakes, showing quakes at a variety of depths within the Askja system:

Earthquake tableDateTimeLatitudeLongitudeDepthMagnitudeQualityLocationTuesday
15.05.201210:42:0565.159-16.4025.0 km2.190.013.0 km SW of HerðubreiðTuesday
15.05.201210:18:0165.004-16.9663.8 km2.937.4416.3 km SSW of LokatindurTuesday
15.05.201210:18:0065.184-16.4401.1 km2.290.014.4 km WNW of HerðubreiðTuesday
15.05.201210:17:5965.153-16.4260.9 km2.690.034.3 km WSW of HerðubreiðTuesday
15.05.201210:17:5865.119-16.7571.1 km2.661.685.4 km ESE of Lokatindur

This post has been edited by Martyn Wells: 15 May 2012 - 11:44

[j_wally]

I waslucky enough to witness the eruption in 2010, I just happened to be in Icelandfor a long weekend to study the Geysers and I ended up staying for 10 days as Icouldn't get home!

I didn't mind though, I had a fantastic time. Eyjafjallajokull is BEAUTIFULL!

[Chris Alder]

Katla is certainly grumbling, although in all probability if an eruption occurs it'll more than likely be like the small one last summer which caused some moderate glacial flooding.