Europe's most active volcano shot sparks, flames, and ash into Italy's sky Saturday.
Mount Etna erupts relatively frequently, but the volcano has not had a major eruption since 1992. Saturday's eruption sent a wall of ash so high into the air it could be seen through most of eastern Sicily, the Associated Press reported.
The eruption just before dawn forced the Catania airport to shut down the surrounding airspace. The order was lifted only a few hours later.
No evacuations were necessary as a result of the eruption. There were no fatalities, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The volcano has been famous throughout history. The ancient Greeks believed it was the home of Vulcan, the god of fire. When Mt. Etna erupted the Greeks believed it was because Vulcan was creating weapons for the the god of war, Mars, LiveScience reported.
Mount Etna also sent lava hundreds of feet into the air in January of 2011.
"This eruption is very similar to more than 200 episodes of lava fountaining at the summit craters of Mount Etna - including 66 from the Southeast Crater in the year 2000," Boris Behncke, a volcanologist and expert on Mount Etna, said of the 2011 eruption, LiveScience reported. "The same vent that erupted last night already produced nearly identical - though longer-lasting - episodes in September and November 2007 and most recently on May 10, 2008."
Mount Sinabung, an Indonesian volcano, also erupted Wednesday night and lasted until Thursday morning. It sent dark volcanic matter almost two miles into the air, the Associated Press reported.
The ash covered regions to the east and southeast of the volcano in a dusting of volcanic ash, an area that included farms and even villages, the Jakarta Post reported.
Villagers had just been arriving home after 15,000 people were forced to leave their homes during another eruption the previous month, the Associated Press reported. No fatalities are believed to have occurred.
WATCH:
