A brief respite in the volcanic rumblings and a chance for people to risk a return home to grab what they could. Four thousand were evacuated from the village of Grindovik in the early hours of Saturday as molten rock beneath their feet triggered an earthquake's worm.

Just the necessary things, just clothes and medicine, some appliances, maybe. Yeah, just what we didn't get when we left.

Gryndyrgyr is in the southwest of Iceland, not far from the capital, Reykjavik. The molten rock or magma has pooled in a tunnel nine miles long, close to town. It's risen up from deep in the earth through cracks and is now about 800 meters below the surface.

Scientists still don't know where the magma will break through the surface. It's most likely to be inland just over those hills, perhaps producing a lava fountain, but it could be just offshore, in which case the mix of molten rock and seawater would be explosive and produce an ash cloud.

It's unlikely to be on the scale of the 2010 eruption of Ayifiela, Yukul, whichused an ash plume that grounded flights over Europe for a week. But this is the first time in 50 years that people have been moved out of harm's way of an eruption in Island, and scientists are tracking the magma for clues on what comes next.

This magma could either sit beneath the crust or it could pressurize again and reach the surface. And this is why we rely so much now on real time monitoring. And it means that people returning to this village will have to unfortunately wait several days, if not weeks, before we can give the clearance.

In evacuation centers, those who fled Grindovik are still processing what happened.

There's this idea back of your mind that Earth can just open up and swallow you. You never know. So it was really scary. Actually, when I came here, the safety, I felt so good, so relieved.

In eruption is still considered highly likely the magma is so close to the surface, there is little holding it back. Thomas Moore, Skye News, Iceland.