Iceland pours cold water on volcanic rumours

The Icelandic Met Office was this week moved to address concerns that one of the country’s ice-capped volcanos was set to erupt.

The meteorological society said it was prompted to clarify one of its earlier reports after seeing “inaccurate news in recent days” about “seismic unrest” at the Katla volcano, to the south of the island.

Though it issued a release detailing how the volcano had experienced more than 100 “shallow-seated earthquakes” since June, four times the monthly average, including two magnitude 4.5 quakes, the largest in the area since 1977, the Icelandic Met Office has since said Katla is going through 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”.

The travel industry has been particularly concerned about volcanic activity on the island ever since the explosion in 2010 of Eyjafjallajökull all but closed European air space for six days, stranding 10 million people and costing £1.5billion in lost revenue.

This is not the first time this year there has been an increased incidence of volcanic rumours. In June, Professor Páll Einarsson at the University of Iceland warned that Hekla, a volcano nicknamed the “Gateway to Hell” was “ready to go”.