Grimsvotn, located beneath Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier, last erupted in 2011 (File)
Reykjavik, Iceland:
Iceland on Monday raised the alert level for a possible eruption of its most active volcano after several smaller earthquakes were recorded earlier in the day.
Situated in an uninhabited and remote region of central Iceland, Grimsvotn Volcano lies beneath a massive glacier.
Experts have been monitoring Grimsvotn for several weeks after Glacier Lake erupted, an event that could trigger a volcanic eruption.
In the latest eruption in 2011, the ash cloud caused relatively minor air traffic disruption, when about 900 flights were cancelled.
It was considered minor compared to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano a year earlier, causing 100,000 flights to be canceled and 10 million passengers stranded.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said on its website that the alert level for Grimsvotn volcano was raised from “yellow” to “orange” on Monday, due to “increased seismic activity”.
According to the IMO’s scale, the color code designed to inform the aviation industry about the risk of eruption means that the volcano is “showing increased activity with an increased likelihood of eruption”.
Code red means an eruption is considered imminent, with a strong chance that the ash cloud could cause significant disruption to air traffic.
Several earthquakes of magnitude 3.6 were recorded on Monday.
While there has been an increase in seismic activity over the past two days, there has been no increase in the volcano’s magma so far, the IMO said.
“This seismic activity may be due to the decreasing pressure over the volcano, as flood waters have been released from the subglacial lake,” the IMO said.
A natural phenomenon known as a “jokulahloop,” subglacial flooding began about two weeks ago and peaked early Sunday.
The IMO said the measurements showed that the ice cap on the subglacial lake of Grimsvoten has decreased by about 77 m (253 ft).
The reduced pressure on the volcano, driven by the flow of millions of tons of water, could have caused an eruption. The same thing happened in 2004, 1934 and 1922.
Grimsvotn, located beneath Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier, last erupted in 2011. Its most recent eruptions have occurred every five to 10 years.
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