Iceland’s Katla Volcano Activity since Eyjafjallajokull Eruption
June 17, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Given the very recent earthquake activity at Iceland’s Katla Volcano during June 17,2011, activity which looks like it has to do with magma movement, you may be interested in the following list of articles that I’ve written since April 2010 when it’s immediate neighbor, Eyjafjallajokull, erupted and interrupted European air traffic and commerce for a time.
My interest in volcanoes (among many other things) led me to quickly discover that Katla has always historically erupted between 6 months and 1.5 years after Eyjafjallokull. The thing is, Katla has the potential to be 10 times as powerful as Eyja… and is now well within the historical window of eruption.
A sudden onset of an earthquake swarm, as well as tremors with signatures of magma movement, has led many to suspect that Katla may now be at higher risk of an eruption soon. Sometimes these signals vanish as quickly as they come, and there is no way of knowing for certain what will happen next. We are watching this monster though…
Update from someone ‘in the know’ on this subject:
Since Friday there has been constant harmonic tremors from Katla. The quakes on Friday were Tectonic in nature but the underlying cause was probably due to magmatic pressure as harmonic tremors can only mean magma movement.
His general opinion:
Katla is not ready to erupt, but given that the exact nature of an eruption is not known, you have to reason that any quake storm could trigger an eruption.
Why the MSM silence on the matter?
The main reason for silence is that the wrong comment could cause major financial crash of stocks if the mention of a local or global disaster is mentioned.
Link to current quakes at Katla
From oldest to newest since April 2010:
Will Iceland’s Katla Volcano Blow Next?
Uh-oh! Katla Volcano Just Rumbled
Katla Volcano Update, 21-May-2010
Katla Volcano – 3 Earthquakes in Seconds
Katla Volcano 10x or 100x Eyjafjallajokull
Katla Volcano Caldera Earthquakes
Katla Eruption History
Katla Volcano Questions and Answers
If Katla’s West Side Erupts…
Are Recent Katla Volcano Earthquakes Seasonal?
Katla Volcano Caldera Earthquakes 2010-Sep
Iceland’s Katla Volcano – 6 months later
Sudden Activity at Katla Volcano
Mysterious Quake Circle on Katla Volcano
Sulfur Smell at Katla
Katla Volcano To Topple Eurozone?
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Jón Frímann says:
June 18, 2011 at 01:29
I am not liking the tremor signals that I am now seeing on SIL stations around Katla. They are increasing fast at current time. They are too big to be from the ML2.8 earthquake in Húsafell, so I know it is not that earthquake (at least I think so). Even if it was detected far and wide on stations around south Iceland.
Actually this can mean everything and nothing. Don’t forget that we see this quakes only because there is a ton of new measuring equipment placed around Katla. In the old days we would have seen only the strong quakes.
The other thing is: There is no proven connection between Katla and Eyjafjallajökull. You can’t read such a pattern out of just three eruptions.
Katla erupted approximately 20x in the last thousand years, Eyjafjallajökull just 3x. There is some chance, that might happen just by chance.
True, the Brits recently paid to have more monitoring stations around Katla, all of which were installed early this year (if my memory serves correctly). Here is an article that I wrote after having done some research on Katla and Eyja eruptions, while attempting to look back at history for any possible historical connection. Katla Eruption History
Eyja has erupted 4 times in the past 2,000 years, and Katla has always erupted between 6 and 18 months thereafter. Could certainly be coincidence. We’ll see if it follows suit this time. This October will be 18 months…
What I want to know is what exactly is the trigger and why one volcano Eyja…… sets off Katla. If Katla doesn’t go off within that 1 and 1/2 year time period it could mean that Katla when it does erupt will have accumulated much pressure and really blow. People still are very much in the dark about what goes on below the surface.
Actually, there has not been an official connection between Eyja and Katla, even though they are located very close to each other. Some people suspect an undiscovered connection due to the historical time-relationship between eruptions of the two. We shall soon see.
OOOOOooWeeeeee!! It’s coming, the witch is about to fly on her Broom!!
Indeed… Katla is named after an Icelandic witch.
Sorry to correct your statement: “Since Friday there has been constant harmonic tremors from Katla”
Ok, you are correct that on Friday there were week harmonic tremor pulses which could indicate that there probably was a dike intrusion at great depth (see depth of quakes). Only, on Saturday the tremors pulse dropped and tremor graphs went back to normal up intil this moment.
Also you stated that the quakes were tectonic, but experts opinions states they were/are magmatic of nature.
But 4 sure, Katla is back in the picture after 4 months of relative quietness.
1 2 watch!!