Posted on by Jón Frímann

Earthquake activity in Katla volcano

Even if there is December and Katla volcano is supposed to have less earthquake activity during this time of year. It seems to be that currently that is not the case. But the earthquake activity is less then it was this summer after the minor eruption in July 2011. No major earthquake swarm has been taking place in Katla volcano for the past few weeks. But there is a lot of earthquakes taking place, without it being a earthquake swarm at one single location inside Katla volcano.


Current earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Many people might ask if this earthquake activity is something to worry about. The answer is no. Katla volcano is unlikely to start an eruption in December. But if this pattern of earthquake activity it is clear that Katla volcano is going to erupt sooner rather then later. But the question after the mini-eruption last summer (July 2011), if there are going to be around 10 years until next eruption takes place in Katla volcano. For the moment nobody knows for sure.

Other: I want to remind people about the forum. It can be used to ask questions, chat, share pictures and so on.

15 Replies to “Earthquake activity in Katla volcano”

  1. The Forum might be easier to find if you put a link to it on top of the blog, where the other links are.

  3. How much of this EQ activity is caused by the additional weight of snow and ice on the edges of the caldera?

    1. It is believed that more ice drops the amount of earthquakes taking place in Katla volcano. That is the reason why there are normally no earthquakes from middle of November until start of April.

  4. If you look at the depth of the majority of the earthquakes in Katla, you will note that they are of very shallow depth. Almost certainly due to movment and loading of the glacier.
    Quakes due to the injection of magma will all be much deeper than this, depending on the depth of the magma chambers (plural).

  5. They were scaremongering again on the BBC Breakfast show this morning – talking about a device Easyjet are trialling to alert pilots to ash they mentioned that a bigger volcano in Iceland was getting more active and could soon erupt.

  6. Difficult night is over. As Windows XP on my main earthquake computer dedicated to go bye-bye after been used since 2006 (a upgrade from Windows 2000). I had to do a re-install with everything that follows it.

  8. Wow the BBC finally got it right! Just watched news on tv and they said about these new devices that attach to aeroplanes that can allow the pilot to see the exact density and location of volcanic ash… some guy from easy jet. They mentioned that katla will go off but when is still a mystery! Well done BBC news! 🙂

  9. Just read tony m comment. I think presenters are to blame…. the comment that i posted came straight from the horses mouth. People do like to dramatise

  12. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/esk.gif
    Jon I have never seen harmonic tremors like this at Eystri- Skogar.
    know there is strong wind in the area but not so much this morning to account for these strong signals.
    Is it possible that magma is on the move up into another dike on the south side of Katla. I am wondering if “Jon’s hot spot” could eventually cause a fissure eruption on the south flank of the caldera? Or am I way off line with this idea?

  13. I’m with you, diana. This look creepy:P but I feel something is going on, and we don’t see it for what it is. You that know a little more than me, can’t you look through the rest of the data, and see if there is anything else that can be a tiny bit different to what it useally is?

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