Katla melting ice cap – causing flooding near the volcano

A massive flood of meltwater poured out of Iceland’s Myrdalsjoekull glacier Saturday, raising fears of an eruption from the powerful Katla volcano underneath, but experts said a large blast was unlikely.

The flooding sparked fears of an eruption at Katla, known to be one of Iceland’s most powerful volcanoes and located just southeast of Eyjafjoell, notorious for last year’s flight-halting gigantic ash cloud. But experts said geothermal heat, and not an eruption, might be the culprit behind the flow of meltwater.

Katla, which is named after an Icelandic witch and said to be 10 times more powerful than Eyjafjoell, last erupted in 1918, sending a wall of meltwater down the glacier, bearing ice chunks the size of houses, and blanketing southern Iceland in thick ash. And according to experts, the volcano, which is also located to the southeast of Grimsvoetn which was behind Iceland’s latest eruption in May, is overdue for a powerful blast.

The seismometres had meanwhile gone crazy at the time the so-called river-run occurred, and Ilyinskaya hinted that the activity at Katla may actually have caused sensors around the Hekla volcano, about 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of Reykjavik, to indicate in recent days an eruption there could be imminent. (TerraDaily)

Small eruption took place in Katla volcano caldera. According to Icelandic news there where three newly formed cauldrons in the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. The eruption is unlikely to break the glacier at current time if it remains small. Newest reports say that cracks have formed in the glacier around the cauldrons.

Evacuations are currently taking place in Álftaver, Þakgil and any other place that might be danger. People how are close to affected rivers from Mýrdalsjökull are urged to get away from them due to danger of dangerous gases in the glacier water.

The bridge over Múlakvísl is gone, it did vanish the flood water early this morning. According to the news the bridge got flooded around 03:00 UTC last night. Road 1 is closed in this area.

Currently earthquake activity continues in Katla volcano caldera. But the tremor has been dropping for the past few hours after it topped around 03:00 UTC last night. (jonfr)

Flooding may have been caused either by a small eruption, or geothermal heat emitted from the volcano, the authorities said.

Katla is one of Iceland’s largest and most active volcanoes. Located east of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, near the southern end of Iceland’s eastern volcanic zone, Katla is buried beneath the Myrdalsjökull icecap. Its peak reaches 1,512 meters.

Katla is one of the largest volcanoes in Iceland. It is situated to the north of Vík í Mýrdal and to the east of the smaller glacier Eyjafjallajökull. Its peak reaches 1,512 metres (4,961 ft) in height and is partially covered by the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. The Eldgjá canyon is part of the same volcanic system. The caldera is 10 km (6 mi) diameter and is covered with 200–700 metres (660-2,300 ft) of ice.

Sixteen eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918 at intervals of 40–80 years. It has not significantly erupted for 92 years, although there may have been small eruptions that did not break the ice cover in 1955 and 1999.

The eruptions have had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of between 4 and 6 (scale goes between 0 to 8). In comparison the Eyjafjallajökull 2010 eruption had a VEI4. The bigger VEI6 eruptions are comparable to Pinatubo 1991 eruption. (…)

Eruptions in the Katla volcanic centre in historical times
(G.Larsen, 1993)

Eruption site	Year/century	Date of eruption	Duration (days)	Repose time (years)
Katla	1918	12 October	24	58
–	1860	8 May	20	37
–	1823	26 June	28	68
–	1755	17 October	~120	34
–	1721	11 May	~100	61
–	1660	3 November	~60	35
–	1625	2 September	13	13
–	1612	12 October		32
–	1580	11 August		~80
–	~1500
–	15. century
–	1416
–	~1357
–	1262
–	1245
–	~1179
–	12. century
Eldgjá-Katla	~934
Katla	~920
–	Late 9. cent. or early 10. cent.

Eruptions in Iceland in since 1902