Posted on by Jón Frímann

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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14 Replies to “Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano”

  2. And a more interesting small but very deep swarm under Bárðarbunga. That’s recharging.

    1. Will most probaly see some green stars from Bárðarbunga in the coming days, she likes being tickled on the feet LOL

    2. This area has been having deep earthquakes for months. This is the strongest swarm (in number of earthquakes) I’ve seen there since this started (at least several weeks. I forget).

  3. That’s a very distinct north south and east west line of earthquake activity today. Tectonic shift? It would be interesting to see some GPS data.

    1. A pattern we saw rather often lately.
      Two triple junctions in the making within Vatnajökull? 1) Southeast of Bárdarbunga central volcano at the location where the Holuhraun dyke changed direction by ca. 90° to go northeast, from there also a direct connection southwest to Grímsvötn central volcano; 2) at Grímsvötn volcano: direction southeast connecting Öraefajökull to the Eastern Rift Zone. (The other leg would be southwest in direction of Thordarhyrna and Laki.) This connection explaining – because of the rifting going on at the Eastern Rift Zone -, the “sudden” rivival of Öraefajökull volcano? At the same time one of the steps of a rift jump in eastern direction?
      By the way: A happy new year to you all and esp. Jón.

    2. There is a storm in south Iceland at the moment. It is also possible that a cauldron did empty it self in last few days resulting in higher conductivity.

      1. Oops, you are correct. Very windy in deed. Usually wind shows like a thicker line on the drumplot, so I mistook it for small EQs.

      2. I imagine the cauldrons emptying would explain the increased EQ activity around Katla over the past two days

    1. More EQs can be expected, as there has already been a number of deeper ones. If Katla is acting as ‘usual’, that is.

  6. Hightened electrical conductivity has been recorded in Múlakvísl, according to RUV report, just out.

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