Day: July 10, 2011

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Update on Katla volcano at 22:25 UTC

Here is an short update on Katla volcano.

There has not been a lot of earthquake activity in Katla volcano during the past few hours. The harmonic tremors are back to normal. But show increased noise from the glacier due the formation of the cauldron in it.

Here is an picture of the current travel ban area. The red lines mark the travel ban area on Mýrdalsjökull glacier. Picture is from Civil Emergency Authority in Iceland.

Other then this it is quiet in Katla volcano. But it important to notice that it is impossible to know for how long this quiet time is going to last given the pattern of activity over the past few weeks in Katla volcano.

Next update on Katla volcano is going to be when it needs to be posted.

Icelandic News about this.

Minnka hættusvæðið á jöklinum (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

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Overview of current events in Katla volcano and current status

Here is an overview of the current events in Katla volcano. This is the short version, as I have not had the time to go over all the data collected so far.

12 June: On this day I did notice the first harmonic tremor spikes. This tremor spike was small and only noticed on few SIL stations around Mýrdalsjökull volcano. No earthquake activity was detected following this event. At least no earthquake activity that was unusual in my opinion.

17 to 18 June: The first earthquake swarm took place on this day that I connect to the current events. This earthquake swarm was special and different from the normal earthquakes that I see in Mýrdalsjökull volcano caldera. It was how dense this earthquake swarm was. There was no or little harmonic tremor following this earthquake swarm.

21 June: New harmonic tremor spike took place in Katla volcano on this day. It was a bit stronger then the first one. But lot smaller then what did happen this weekend.

28 June: What appears as an glacier earthquakes did appear on this day. Along with normal earthquake activity inside the Katla volcano caldera.

After this the events of July 8 start, it did end on the 9 July after what is most likely an minor eruption inside the Katla volcano caldera. This event is over it seems and Katla volcano has once again paused. But that has happened repeatedly over the past few weeks. The time between stops is different and it is impossible to know when the current pause ends. It is also impossible to know what happens next time activity picks up in Katla volcano caldera. Currently the earthquake activity continues in the Katla volcano caldera, but there are few earthquakes happening now then earlier this weekend.

For now all that can be done is to wait and see what happens.

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All quiet at Katla volcano

Currently everything is quiet in Katla volcano. At the moment the harmonic tremor level have gone back to normal levels. But there appears to be some earthquake activity taking place inside Katla volcano caldera. But most of this earthquakes do not appear on the automatic earthquake list that IMO has. But it might be impossible to actually locate this earthquakes as they might just appear on single or two SIL stations.

The glacier flood is over and the flood water have continued to lower during the day.

It is hard to know for sure what happens next. But the current events started around 17. June when earthquake swarms started to appear on the Katla volcano caldera. This has been developing rather fast since then. I do not expect that to change any time soon. But what I think was harmonic tremor pulses started around 12. June.

For now however all that can be done is to wait and see what happens in Katla volcano. As I do not think that this is over. But we might be in for an few hours or days of an break until something new happens in Katla volcano.

Icelandic News about this.

Einungis brúin eftir (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Highway no. 1 disrupted for weeks. (Rúv.is, English, German)