Rumbles under the Ice

Ruh-roh.
Katla is rumbling a bit.

Historically, Katla tends to erupt 1-2 years after any eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.

Katla eruptions are also, historically, very nasty, very dangerous and likely to have wide (continental scale) impacts.
But not always.
Katla is the primary motivator for Iceland's rather excellent Civil Defence System.

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From vedur.is

Earthquakes in last 48 hours under Mýrdalsjökull.

Definitely something stirring under there.
Will need to keep an eye on that, could go burp.
Or not.

h/t Lára Hanna

PS: Jón Frímann is local and on it

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Series of substantial earthquakes in the Katla caldera, could be nothing could be sign of an impending eruption there are multiple, relatively shallow earthquakes taking place now, several with magnitude of 3+ earthquake map at 4:10 am (from vedur.is) it is dark, no other evidence yet, eg no…
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CUT. IT. OUT.

Really, I'm sick and tired of Icelandic volcanism. Put a cork in it. Literally. Or fill it up with unused AOL CDs. I don't care how you do it. But if there's as much as a peep from any of your volcanoes anytime in the next five years, we'll take tugboats and tow your island into the middle of the Pacific. >:(

By Phillip IV (not verified) on 18 Jun 2011 #permalink

Hmm, the AOL thing might work, though there´d be a severe coaster shortage
But... which volcano? There are 3-4 that are moving, Katla just seems likely to be the most imminent.
Fortunately the tremours stopped.

Well, for a bit, they started again.
Beautiful almost straight line ascending from ~ 10 km down up to the caldera.

"But... which volcano? There are 3-4 that are moving, Katla just seems likely to be the most imminent."

Just nuke them all from orbit...

Actually, would a small hydrogen bomb exploded several kilometers underground be able to create a channel to relieve pressure and avoid explosive eruptions? Not that I'm advocating that, just curious.

By Alex Besogonov (not verified) on 19 Jun 2011 #permalink