Italy's Mount Etna, Europe's biggest live volcano, erupted overnight with lava flows and explosive burps, vulcanologists said Saturday.

A heavy emission of ash into the sky forced the closure of two airports in Sicily's second-biggest city of Catania. They partially reopened early Saturday.

The activity followed "lively spattering" recorded by the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) in early June and a previous eruption in December last year.

Eruptions are frequent, and the last major one dated back to early 2009.

The institute said this latest eruption was intermittent and the lava was flowing around 1.5 kilometres (one mile) down a desertic escarpment called the Valle del Bove (Ox Valley) from craters situated on the volcano's southeast face.

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Volcanologists: Magma is wetter than we thought
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 04, 2019
Researchers have determined magma is wetter than previously thought. Volcano experts knew volatiles in magma play an important role in influencing the size and power of an eruption. But measuring volatile levels is difficult. In the wake of a violent eruption, all the volatiles have evaporated and escaped into the atmosphere. The best technique scientists have for measuring volatile levels is locating and analyzing tiny bits of magma trapped in crystals ejected during the eruption. By me ... read more