Friday, December 2, 2011

UPDATED--Iceland: "Katla volcano threatens eruption capable of disrupting air traffic"

Update below.
Original post:
It might be time to dust off the Iceland volcano jokes:
Iceland goes bankrupt, then it manages to set itself on fire. 
This has insurance scam written all over it. 
This is the big volcano.
From News.com (Australia):
A HUGE Icelandic volcano long overdue for an eruption is showing signs of activity that could disrupt air traffic, experts reported. 
 
There have been more than 500 tremors at Katla in the south of the country in just the last month.
An increase in activity at the site since July has also been causing concern among volcano experts.
The last major eruption at the volcano was in 1918, and caused such a large glacier meltdown that icebergs were swept into the ocean by resulting floods.

Significant activity at Katla -- which has a huge 6.2 mile (10 km) crater -- usually occurs every 40 to 80 years.It is feared when it does eventually erupt, it could be the most powerful volcano activity the country has seen in almost a century....MORE
From the BBC:
New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact
Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there are signs of a looming volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has seen in almost a century.

Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.

There were more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in October, which suggests the motion of magma.

"And that certainly suggests an eruption may be imminent."

Scientists in Iceland have been closely monitoring the area since 9 July, when there appears to have been some sort of disturbance that may have been a small eruption...MORE
A week ago the Iceland Volcano and Earthquake blog had a post "Bogus news story going around about Katla volcano"  but that was before either of thes articles.

UPDATE: 
Iceland trying to calm Katla volcano eruption fears in international media
The BBC and other international media reported today that an eruption of the Katla volcano in Iceland is “imminent”. Icelandic scientists and worried tourism chiefs have been quick to point out that it is impossible to say what “imminent” means: it could still be years....MORE
Previously:

April 19, 2010 
"Volcanic ash relentless as tremors rock Iceland" and "...Eyjafjallajökull volcano is nothing to 'Angry Sister' Katla"


May 17, 2010  
Goodbye Eyjafjallajökull, Hello Katla: Big Sister Rumbles

Sept. 8, 2011 
No Immediate Risk that Iceland's Most Feared Volcano Will Experience a Cataclysmic VEI 7 Eruption