A swarm of 14 small to very small mostly very shallow quakes occurred at Katla volcano yesterday and today. Epicenter depths were reported between 0.1 and 12.2 km. Judging from the depth and magnitude of the quakes, the most likely cause for the seismic swarm are adjustments of the hydrothermal system under the icecap, and probably not magmatic intrusions (which would be possible indicators of a future new eruption). ... read all

Katla volcano continues to show signs of increased unrest. A small glacial flood occurred from under the volcano's icecap Katla around 28 April 2012 and possibly again around 7-8 May, both times accompanied by increased levels of harmonic tremor. This suggests that magma movements inside the volcano might be heating up the ground, causing increased melting. read all

Jón Frímann on his dedicated blog about Icelandic (and not only) volcanoes closely follows what is happening there: a cluster of minor earthquakes has been showing up under the Katla volcano caldera. This has been following a gradual increase in seismic activity under Katla during the past few weeks. It could be a signal of new volcanic activity to be expected on a timescale of few weeks to months. A new eruption would probably be heralded by a strong seismic swarm, and could start and build up rapidly. It did so in July 2011 when a sudden increase in earthquake activity occurred and there was an small eruption without warning. ... read all

Volcanic tremor (a low frequency vibration often caused by magma rising to the surface) has been observed under Katla volcano in southern Iceland, Jón Frímann reports on his Iceland volcanoes blog (see below), closely following seismic activity in Iceland recorded both by national instruments and his own private geophone network. ... read all

Two of Iceland's most known and active volcanoes are showing signs of unrest. Another seismic swarm (after the last one around 3 Feb) occurred at Katla volcano yesterday, although it was weaker than the previous ones. Most likely, the swarm was caused by another shallow dike injection (magma intrusion) beneath the crater, confirming the ongoing unrest at the volcano. read all