Today (19.04.2017) a strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had magnitude of 3,0 and 3,1 other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude. This is the strongest earthquake activity in Katla volcano since January 2017 when a magnitude 4,3 earthquake happened. No harmonic tremor was detected following this earthquake swarm.
The earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Green stars show the magnitude 3,0 and 3,1 earthquakes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The earthquakes that I detected on my geophone in Heklubyggð show that the largest earthquakes was a mixed type of volcano earthquakes. This means that magma was responsible for today’s earthquake swarm. It was reported today in the news that this earthquake swarm took place away from all major hydrothermal areas inside Katla volcano caldera. The area of activity is close to eruption area of 1755 and a minor eruption close to current earthquake area in 1955 (didn’t break the glacier).
The main earthquake with the magnitude of 3,1 in Katla volcano. The trace is filtered at 4Hz due to high wind in the area. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC licence for more details.
This earthquake activity might just be a early signs of more activity to come. Since current pattern of activity has been going on since August-2016, with minor drop in activity between January to April. How this evolves depends on many factors that cannot be predicted due to lack properly documented earthquake history. Scientists know some details of Katla volcano eruptions behaviour, but those accounts are not fully accurate due to lack of knowledge at the time, currently the best documented eruption in Katla volcano is from 1918.
Article updated at 20:41 UTC. Correction made to the information about strongest earthquake. I recalled that detail wrongly.
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Nearly every quake of this swarm has been detected in 0,1km depth. If really magma was responsible for that…..it’s more than close (to the icecap).
Actually, it is the strongest earthquake in Katla since January.
http://icelandgeology.net/?p=6640
None the less, it’s remarkably high activity for Katla, especially for being April. Normally a very quiet time. Wonder what will happen when we approach the time of the year when Katla is usually more active.
Minor drop in activity does not exclude strong earthquakes. I’m also extremely forgetful. After this earthquake Katla volcano has remained quiet until now (mostly, few spikes in activity here and there if I remember correctly and that might not be the case).
Next few weeks might get interesting in Katla volcano.
I’ve corrected the article.
It must be impossible remembering everything when you’re immersing yourself in so much different volcano data every day! Plus your work with the website and everything.
Myself, I’m mostly monitoring Katla. Not much else 🙂
Jon it looks like we still know little about her properly
Maybe “She” was just replying to the noise from Bardarbunga and Reykjanes !
Not much better than these pathetic trolls only to provoke some reactions ( where are they anyway). Chanceless volcano.
Volcano monitoring on new level according to this news by BBC News, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39642372
Sounds good but I still can’t believe how stupid the BBC were that time in going near the lava flow, with snow and ice on the ground.
If my memory is correct, the journalist and film crew were with at least one volcanologist. Were they stupid too?
Yes Andrew they were. Look at it this way would you walk cross a train track with a train passing?
I hate money problems. 🙁
Having money problems leads to other problems, for instance due my current set of money problem (due to low income set by the government of Iceland). I’m less able to pay all my bills and to keep up normal things like dental health (I don’t have good teeth due to genetics). Something that I should have had repaired a year ago is remains a problem due to this and means that tomorrow (24.04.2017), I’ll have to make an emergency trip to the dentist tomorrow to have my tooth temporary fixed again.
Since the last temporary fix broke out just now and that is leaving the tooth half exposed. The main operation it self is not that expensive, around 2100 DKK/282,40€ (I get a support from the multiplicity due to how poor I am, that support is around half the price), but due to how poor I am. I have not been able to pay that for almost a year already.
Currently I’m just paying the regular bills and I’m already downsizing that part where I can. Paying down my debt in Iceland is what I’m spending part of my income on along with the interest payment in Iceland. I currently have my debt payment high so I can get rid of the debt in Iceland soon as possible. I will be mostly finished with that at the end of 2017 and I hope to finish paying that debt in 2018 by August. After that I hope things will be better since then I’ll have more free money to renew things and get my tooth fixed (or removed, since I got two tooth’s that need removing).
I just hope that I can afford the emergency treatment tomorrow at the dentists. Since I got so little money left at the end of this month (April 2017 has been rather bad).
I just needed to vent a little.