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The past few days have seen a swarm of tremors around Katla volcano, but yesterday they reached over a 3 in magnitude or up to 3.6. According to reports quakes aren’t always signs of looming eruptions although the seismic activity has been frequent of late. The Icelandic Met Office is closely monitoring the volcano and surrounding area.
Katla is a large subglacial volcano in southern Iceland. It’s been dormant under the Mydalsjokull glacier for almost 100 years, but it’s considered a very active volcano with twenty documented eruptions between 930 and 1918, with intervals of 13–95 years.

Katla hasn’t erupted forcefully since 1918, although there may have been small eruptions under the icecap that didn’t break the ice, including ones in 1955, 1999, and 2011. Prior eruptions have measured with a Volcanic Explosively Index of between VEI-4 and VEI-6 on a scale of 0 to 8. In comparison, the infamous 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption had a VEI-4. The last major eruption started on 12 October 1918 and lasted for 24 days. It was likely a VEI-5 level eruption.
Katla’s present dormancy is among the longest in known history and many theorize that the current seismic activity is a sure sign of a pending eruption although the Icelandic Met Office assures that there are no definite tell tale signs of a looming eruption.