Iceland’s Met Office: Two earthquakes rock large volcano

Iceland’s Meteorological Office says two earthquakes early Monday rocked the caldera of Katla, one of the country’s largest volcanoes. Gunnar Gudmundsson, a geophysicist, said authorities are monitoring the situation at the volcano in southern Iceland and described it as “a little bit unusual.” The quakes measured magnitude 4.2 and magnitude 4.5 and were followed by some 20 aftershocks. “People have been waiting for an eruption for 50 years,” Gudmundsson said of Katla. “But there is no sign of an eruption.” Katla, named after an evil troll, is in southern Iceland about 140 kilometres from the capital, Reykjavik. Iceland, an island nation in the remote North Atlantic, is a volcanic hot spot often subject to seismic activity.