Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (18. December 2022) at 11:08 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,8 took place in Katla volcano. This earthquake was felt, I don’t know if it was felt in Vík í Mýrdal. This is the largest earthquake in Katla volcano in a while.
There has been some earthquake activity with minor earthquakes following this strong earthquake. But it has been minimal at the writing of this article.
Today (16. December 2022) at 21:44 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in Katla volcano. This seems to be a single earthquake at the writing of this article.
This earthquake activity seems to be normal and there is nothing to suggests that more is going to happen in Katla volcano at this time.
Today (27-November-2022) two pulses of earthquake activity took place in Katla volcano. No eruption happened following this earthquake activity. This earthquake activity is interesting but it is unclear what is going on. This can be normal earthquake activity in Katla volcano, even if the earthquakes are larger than normal or this is a step that is going to result in an eruption happening in the future. At the moment, there’s no way to know what is the fact here. The earthquake pulses did come in two activity spikes, the first one started at 03:41 and lasted until 03:53 UTC. The second earthquake pulse did come at 11:48 and lasted until 12:12 UTC.
The largest earthquakes had a magnitude of Mw3,0 and Mw3,1 and Mw3,4. This is not a dyke intrusion of magma. Such activity behaves differently in a volcano than just surface level earthquake activity as took place in Katla volcano. Based on what I am seeing, it is possible that more earthquake pulses like this are going to happen in next few days or weeks.
Today (22-November-2022) a strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano at 19:55 UTC. Strongest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw4,4. One Mw3,5 earthquake was recorded with several smaller earthquakes. Magnitudes and number of earthquakes are changing. This is an updated text of the earthquake magnitude.
What is going on is unclear at the writing of this article. At the writing of this article I am not seeing any change in harmonic tremor, but that might change without warning. I’ll post updates if anything more happens in Katla volcano.
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Article updated at 21:16 UTC.
Article updated at 23:06 UTC.
This earthquake activity is ongoing at the writing of this article.
I normally don’t write article this late unless I think it is important.
This earthquake activity in Katla volcano seems to be at that nature that it is worth writing a short article about it this late. At 00:46 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 (this is early reviewed earthquake magnitude, it might change when reviewed later tomorrow at Icelandic Met Office). Few smaller earthquakes have happened following this earthquake. Currently the earthquake activity is slow and it is possible that nothing more might happen.
I don’t know if this is a sign of an eruption that is going to happen or if this is just an earthquake activity that happens regularly in Katla volcano. There are now 104 years since last major eruption in Katla volcano and the situation is unclear on what is going on. If anything more happens I am going to write an update tomorrow. There’s a good chance nothing more might happen, but it is worth keeping a watch out for this if anything changes suddenly.
The police and Icelandic Met Office have now advised people not to go to Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This is after the earthquake swarm earlier today. According to Icelandic Met Office this earthquake swarm is similar to what happened before the minor eruption in Katla volcano in July 2011 that resulted in a glacier flood down Mýrdalssand and destroyed the bridge over the glacier river in that area. All trips to see ice caves in Mýrdalsjökull glacier have been temporarily forbidden by the Icelandic Police.
In July 2011 it took around 24 hours from the start of the earthquake activity then until something happened. If that is going to be case now I don’t know. That this activity is similar to July 2011 eruption is worrying. The eruption in July 2011 was minor and didn’t break the glacier, but it resulted in damage in that area from the glacier flood.
Largest earthquakes now have the magnitude of Mw3,8 and Mw3,0 (few of them). Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude but that might change without warning.
Today (10-July-2022), earthquake activity in Katla volcano increased. Most of the earthquakes that have happened are above magnitude Mw2,0 and that is unusual. Largest earthquake at the writing of this article had a magnitude of Mw3,0.
It is unclear at the writing of this article what this means. Glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier following this earthquake activity is a possibility. Currently there are no signs that an eruption is about to start, that can change without warning. This might also just be normal summer activity in Katla volcano. At the writing of this article, the answer of what is going on is not clear.
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Today (14-August-2021) an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,1 took place in Katla volcano. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.
This earthquake activity appears to be normal late summer activity in Katla volcano. There was a minor increase in conductivity in nearby glacier rivers in last few days, that suggests that cauldrons have been emptying their water this summer. This is normal and happens almost every summer due to glacier melt.
Today (31-July-2021) at 12:53 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Katla volcano. A swarm of smaller earthquakes continued after the largest earthquake, this earthquake activity seems to be ongoing at the writing of this article.
Summer earthquake activity in Katla volcano is common and that makes it less clear what is going on in Katla volcano at the writing of this article. There is now a chance of more earthquake activity in Katla volcano.
Yesterday (29-July-2021) there was an earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Two strongest earthquakes had the magnitude of Mw3,2 at 19:20 and 19:22 UTC. Third largest earthquake at 19:28 UTC had a magnitude of Mw2,8.
It is unclear if this earthquake activity is just summer activity or part of a larger activity. At this time I am not expecting an eruption since the earthquake activity is currently too low for such event to about to take place. There are going to be thousands of earthquakes in Katla volcano before an large eruption. Until that happens. I do not worry about this activity.