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)
Would this also be a harmonic tremor at around 12:30pm?
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/drumplot/drumplot/aus_highpass_2.0.png
I don’t know for sure. I am not seeing any clear signal on the harmonic tremor plots at this moment. If this is a weak signal that might be the reason. There is no clear harmonic tremor on the brunnur image. You can view that image here.
http://brunnur.vedur.is/myndir/grjot.png
Wouldn’t it make pretty good sense if that tremor/noise was caused by flowing water?
That does happen, but harmonic tremor noise from a glacier flood is different than the one from magma or other sources. I don’t know what is the case here. Just noise from the glacier floor or just one of those small eruptions happening in Katla volcano.
Looks like some large spikes on SIL stations, I assume a nearby EQ?
Earthquake in Alaska U.S. Magnitude Mw6,6. EMSC information, https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=622928
It is now my view that an small eruption took place in Katla volcano on 3rd of October. It was smaller than the eruption that took place in July. This pattern is interesting.
What’s your evidence/data for this view Jon?
Based on earlier activity in July and in 2011 this is the most likely what happened. This eruption was small. There was a clear tremor detected for about 35 minutes before or around the time the glacier flood happened.
Could this be part of a new process which would lead into a bigger eruption if this continues, or is it hard to say at the moment?
That is not know. Last eruption was in 1918 and what happens before an large eruption in Katla volcano is completely unknown at the moment.
Have you got a screenshot of the tremor at the time?
Jon,
Just a note. You cannot fell a smell, I think you meant detected.
Regards
Richard
I would have to disagree with Richard in the 80’s when a rat died in the ceiling of my office you could feel the smell as well as detect it ! The sense of smell is not often felt but with that rat and the strong smell of suphur, it is so strong you can actually feel it!
Hello, thoughts on Mýrdalsjökull at the moment? Seems to be some large spikes with Water levels and Heat Levels, plus conductivity is fairly high as well
The large spikes on Godabunga-station (god) were outages of the data-connection. Now the station is completely offline.
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/drumplot/drumplot/god_highpass_2.0.png
Conductivity slowly ticking upwards again in Mulakvisl. Nothing much else going on around Katla, I believe.
Still quiet with Katla but I noticed a few EQ’s seem to be happening on the West side now including one which was 11.9km in depth and this recent one being 9.8km in depth (90 quality) Whether that means anything or not