Concerns of an eruption as two earthquakes hit Icelandic volcano

A volcanic eruption could occur in the south of Iceland, after two earthquakes struck over the weekend.

The earthquakes hit Iceland’s largest volcano, Katla, with magnitudes of 4.2 and 4.5 over the bank holiday weekend. Several aftershocks soon followed.

The Katla Volcano, which usually erupts around every 80 years, hasn’t erupted since 1918, almost 100 years ago.

It is feared that the succession of quakes could trigger an eruption.

Iceland made headline news back in April 2010 when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted and caused a cloud of ash, grounding flights across Europe for several days. Thousands of parents, teachers, and kids, were late back to school and work, after getting stuck abroad during the half term Easter holidays.

Authorities are currently carefully monitoring the volcano's activity. The alert status for Katla has remained as “normal,” according to The Icelandic Meteorological Office, as no tremors have yet been recorded.

Over the last 10 years, Katla has experienced several earthquakes, however there hasn’t been any as sizable as this weekend’s since 1977.

Natural Hazards Scientist at the Icelandic Met Office, Matthew Roberts, said: “It is quite a dynamic situation now, in the next hours and days following this, but as we speak at the moment we do not see any signs that there is an imminent hazardous unrest about to happen.”

Published 30 Aug 2016

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