Is volcano katla in iceland a supervolcano?
No, it isn’t a supervolcano (a VEI-8 volcano like Toba or Yellowstone.) But it isn’t a small volcano either. The Katla caldera has an area of 110 square kilometers, and currently the magma chamber has a volume of around 10 cubic kilometers, which is enough for a VEI-6 explosive eruption. An eruption ten times larger than Mount St. Helens seems feasible. Katla has frequent eruptions (about every 70 years on average for as long as people have lived in Iceland.) Thus the magma chamber is not likely to accumulate enough magma for a VEI-7 eruption. But thousands of years ago the situation may have been different. Several old tephra layers from eruptions at Katla have been discovered in neighbouring countries, and the caldera is big.
