Session 5 VMSG

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Eldgjá; Katla; Mýrdalsjökull; Eyjafjallajökull; glacier; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.680.1658; http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/files/72753361/Owen_VMSG_poster_final.pdf

Why study Katla? Katla is one of Iceland’s most dangerous volcanoes. Eruptions tend to be very explosive but also occur relatively frequently (on average twice per century1). However, Katla has not erupted since 1918. This is now the longest gap between eruptions since historical records began2. This coupled with recent unrest3, probably triggered by the recent eruption of Katla’s neighbour, Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, might mean that an eruption at Katla is imminent. Predicting the behaviour of the next Katla eruption Katla is a large, predominantly basaltic edifice that lies underneath the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in south Iceland (Figs. 1,2). Although in the past Katla has produced rhyolite (e.g. the 7.5 ka eruption) and fissure eruptions that have extended out under the glacier (e.g. the 934–40 A.D. Eldgjá eruption), the past ~750 years of Katla activity have been dominated by large explosive subglacial basaltic eruptions, that produce vast quantities of tephra and powerful jökulhlaups (glacial floods)4. Based on this eruptive history, if Katla does erupt again in the near future, the