No, Iceland's volcano is not about to erupt, says country's Met Office
The Icelandic Met Office has moved to quell fears that European air space is at risk from an imminent volcanic eruption.
The country's weather forecasters poured cold water on "inaccurate news in recent days" about "seismic unrest" at the Katla volcano on the island and said it wanted to clarify that the ice-covered volcano was experiencing a usual "period of summertime unrest" and does not show "signs of impending eruption". However, it did not rule out a "sudden escalation in seismicity".
Northern Europe has been on heightened alert of any volcanic activity in Iceland ever since an ash cloud from the 2010 explosion of Eyjafjallajökull all but closed European air space for six days, stranding 10 million people and costing £1.15 billion in lost revenue.
News reports last week suggesting it might happen again soon were the result of an earlier statement by the Icelandic Met Office that said that more than 100 "shallow-seated earthquakes" had occurred at Katla, a volcano beneath a glacier in the south of the island, since June, four times the monthly average, including two magnitude 4.5 quakes, the largest since 1977.
This sparked concern that an impending explosion could put holidaymakers flying to or over the island on trans-Atlantic routes through more ash cloud chaos.
But the Met Office has released a second statement reiterating its comments.
"Media interest in Iceland's volcanoes has remained high since the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010, hence the summary is intended as an official monitoring statement, in case of diverging media reports," it said.
"Such summertime increases in seismicity are common at Katla and the ongoing activity within the caldera is similar to summertime unrest observed in 2012 and 2014.
"Often this increased seismicity occurred in association with drainage of meltwater from several known ice-cauldrons, formed due to hydrothermal activity, as observed almost annually. Since late June 2016 there have been three small floods in Múlakvísl river, an outlet from Mýrdalsjökull, in addition to a flood from the Entujökull glacier. Presently, water-level and electrical conductivity measurements at the bridge over Múlakvísl show increased drainage of geothermal meltwater from Mýrdalsjökull - the ice-cap overlying Katla.
"Around Katla we are not detecting signs of increased ground deformation or bursts of seismic tremor, which are both signals that might indicate movement of magma. We continue to monitor Katla closely and will issue updates if the situation intensifies.
"Our assessment is that the volcano is in a period of summertime unrest and it does not show signs of impending eruption, although we cannot rule-out a sudden escalation in seismicity in connection with a hazardous flood."
This is not the first time this summer that seismic activity in Iceland has led to panic. In June, Professor Páll Einarsson at the University of Iceland warned that Hekla, a volcano nicknamed the "Gateway to Hell" was "ready to go".
He said: "Hekla is a dangerous volcano. We could be looking at a major disaster when the next eruption begins if we are not careful."
Einarsson pointed to the fact that Hekla has erupted regularly every ten years or so from 1970 to 2000 but now since been silent for 16 years.
Should there be an explosion and subsequent ash cloud that leads to the cancellation of flights across northern Europe, as happened in 2010,passengers will be entitled to a full refund, as protected by EU regulations.
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