Category: Katla / Mýrdalsjökull

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano, ongoing glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier

Today (7-august-2018) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,9 and other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is also a glacier flood coming from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This has resulted in dangerous levels of Hydrogen sulfide gases close to Múlakvísl glacier river and the police has asked people not to stop in the area due to a risk of gas build up. The Hydrogen sulfide is at lethal levels in some areas where wind cannot move it.

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Considerable earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Since early this morning (2-August-2018) there has been considerable earthquake swarm activity in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm started yesterday (1-August-2018) at low rate but during the night and after a minor stop the earthquake rate increased and at the moment this earthquake swarm can be considered ongoing.


Green star is the magnitude 3,6 earthquake in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake so far had a magnitude of 3,7 and the second largest magnitude has been 2,2. Other earthquakes are smaller in magnitude at the moment. No change in harmonic tremor has been observed at the moment. There is a lot suggesting that glacier water from hydrothermal areas under Mýrdalsjökull glacier are now flooding into Múlakvísl glacier river. I got a report of that over facebook yesterday, but nothing has been confirmed officially at the moment.

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (1-August-2018) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,5. All other earthquakes are smaller in magnitude. It is unclear at the moment if this is connected to a possible glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. Currently there are no news on this.


A minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At the moment it appears that this earthquake swarm is over. But it might start again without much warning since that has often been the style of earthquake activity in Katla volcano.

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

During the night of 13-July-2018 a minor earthquake swarm took place in south part of the caldera of Katla volcano.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this minor earthquake swarm was magnitude 2,9 and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 1,9. This earthquake swarm is over but new earthquake swarms might start without warning. July often marks the time when earthquake activity starts to increase in Katla volcano.

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Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

On 25-April-2018 and on 26-April-2018 small earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. The earthquake activity took place in the south part of the Katla volcano caldera.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,1 and 1,8. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. This also suggests that summer earthquake activity in Katla volcano is starting and more earthquake swarms like this can be expected in next few months.

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Sharp increase in earthquakes in Katla volcano

Yesterday (05-January-2018) a warning was issued about higher conductivity in glacier rivers from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This is due to increased activity in Katla volcano. At the moment the conductivity is around 613 µS/cm according to Icelandic Met Office (I can’t find that number on their website for unknown reasons). Volcano gas has also been registered at Láguhvolar SIL station (a gas measurement takes place there). Last time this happened was in November-2017 when a slightly larger glacier flood took place.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Following the glacier flood was a sharp increase in earthquake activity. It is unclear why that happened as glacier flood do not require special earthquake activity to happen. There are no clear sign of minor eruptions happening on SIL stations around Katla volcano. I have not seen any change in tremor plots from SIL stations around Katla volcano. As it now stands I am expecting more earthquake activity and more glacier flood activity if this follows earlier pattern. That might not happen and it is difficult to know for sure what is going to happen next. Largest earthquake in current activity had the magnitude of 2,1 and all other earthquakes have so far been smaller in magnitude. All earthquakes have depth shallower than 1 km.

Sorry if my English is bit off. I did travel for good 14 hours (start time at ~04:10 and got home at ~18:40) on 4th of January-2018. This is the time it takes me to travel home (Denmark) from Iceland. I was completely exhausted once I got home.

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Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (30-December-2017) a small earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. This earthquake activity was a minor one and the largest earthquake only had a magnitude of 1,4 and all other earthquakes where smaller.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know if more earthquake activity is going to happen in Katla volcano. Winter months are normally quiet when it comes to earthquake activity in Katla volcano.

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High conductivity in glacier rivers coming form Mýrdalsjökull glacier (Katla volcano)

During the last few days there has been high conductivity in glacier rivers coming from Mýrdalsjökull glacier (Katla volcano). Due to how cold it is the glacier rivers are not getting any melt water or water from clear streams and that is making the hydrothermal water stronger than normal. Current conductivity is 567µS/cm in Múlakvísl in Mýrdalssandur sand area (not sure where the sensor is located). Some gas has also been detected and that gas is toxic and enough amount to result in breathing problems. Measured amount of H2S was 1ppm and this gas is toxic.

Some minor earthquake activity has been in Katla volcano during the last two days. That earthquake activity might be due to the emptying of the cauldrons in Mýrdalsjökull glacier. The magnitudes in this earthquake activity is minor and all below 2,0 at the moment.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know if this means anything other than cauldrons in the glacier emptying them self in nearby glacier rivers.

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Sulphur smell felt from Múlakvísl glacier river

On the 3-October-2017 there was an increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano as I wrote about here. This activity was deeper than suspected as during the night there was an small harmonic spike as was mentioned in this comment here.

Today (08-October-2017) there was a news on Rúv about sulphur smell being detected and higher conductivity in Múlakvísl glacier river at the same time. The main idea is that one of the twenty cauldrons was emptying it self of hydrothermal melt water that builds up in them, resulting both in the increase conductivity and the harmonic tremor being detected as the cauldron empted it self. This does result in a minor glacier flood in Múlakvísl glacier river. I don’t know for sure what the case is here, but this type of activity has been happening consistently for the past few months in Katla volcano. Conductivity remains rather high in Múlakvísl glacier river according to latests automatic readings on Icelandic Met Office website.

Icelandic news on this

Brennisteinslykt á Mýrdalssandi (rúv.is)

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Increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano

On the 01-October-2017 there was an increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano. This increase continues but bad weather is making it difficult to monitor this activity. The largest earthquakes so far had the magnitude of 2,6 (two) all other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I have also started to detect low period earthquakes that are possibly from Katla volcano. The increase in that type of activity seems to follow increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Why that happens is not known to me. For the past 48 hours the activity seems to be lower then two days ago, but the weather is bad in the area preventing good detection of small earthquakes in Katla volcano. It also seems that the bad weather has damaged Goðabunga SIL station. It might take a while until Icelandic Met Office can fix Goðabunga SIL station.

Server upgrade

In the next few days the server for this website is going to be upgraded and moved to United Kingdom since it is slightly cheaper to host it there. I don’t have the exact date on the transfer. I just hope it happens without a problem. If everything remains quiet this should happen without anyone noticing much. I expect the response of this website and everything else that I host to be quicker after the server upgrade.


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