Volcanic activity in southwest Iceland appears to have calmed down, the Icelandic Civil Protection announced today, a day after an eruption hit the small port town of Gridavik, where a fire engulfed three houses.
"The night passed without incident," said a spokeswoman for Iceland's Civil Protection.
She said that they went to see the site of the eruption and could tell that the flow of lava had decreased.
The flow of magma from the second, smaller fissure appears to have stopped, she added to Icelandic public television.
The eruption occurred yesterday morning near the fishing port of Grindavik, in the southwest of the country.
Two fissures have opened on the ground surface, one of them close to residential buildings, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO).
The lava flows reached the city, which is already in a bad state due to potholes in the road and cracked public buildings, and the lava set fire to three empty houses.
Several dozen locals, who returned to Grindavik at the end of December, were urgently evacuated again the previous night.
The town, which usually has about 4.000 inhabitants, was evacuated for the first time on November 11 as a precaution after hundreds of earthquakes caused by the movement of magma underground, which is the first sign of a volcanic eruption.
They were then able to return home for a short time, after the eruption on December 18 and December 23, but only a few dozen locals decided to return to the city.
Iceland, the country with the most volcanoes in Europe, is thought to have 33 active volcanic systems.
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