Tallest Volcanoes in the World

South America accounts for 46 of the 50 tallest volcanoes, all located along the Andean Volcanic Belt. The belt is divided into four volcanic zones: the Northern Volcanic Zone (Colombia and Ecuador), the Central Volcanic Zone (southern Peru to northern Chile/Argentina), the Southern Volcanic Zone (central Chile/Argentina), and the Austral Volcanic Zone (southern Patagonia).

The Central Volcanic Zone hosts nearly all of the tallest peaks, including the top 10. These volcanoes rise from the Altiplano-Puna Plateau, where the crust is exceptionally thick (up to 70 km) due to tectonic compression. Llullaillaco (6,739 m / 22,110 ft), the world's second-tallest volcano, is notable for holding the world's highest archaeological site — Inca child mummies were discovered near its summit in 1999. Cotopaxi (5,911 m), while only 20th on this list, is arguably the most famous due to its near-perfect conical shape and its history of devastating lahars.

The rock composition in this zone is predominantly andesitic to dacitic, favoring explosive eruptions. However, the extreme aridity of the Atacama Desert and Altiplano means that many of these volcanoes pose limited immediate risk to populations, as few people live above 4,000 m in the region.

While the Andes dominate the top of this list, every inhabited continent has notable high-altitude volcanoes.

Mount Damavand (5,670 m / 18,602 ft) in Iran is a potentially active stratovolcano and the highest peak in the Middle East. Its last confirmed eruption was around 5350 BCE, but active fumaroles near the summit indicate ongoing magmatic activity.

Mount Elbrus (5,642 m / 18,510 ft) in Russia's Caucasus Mountains is Europe's highest peak and a dormant stratovolcano that last erupted around 50 CE. It is heavily glaciated, with over 20 glaciers covering its twin summits.

In Africa, while Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) narrowly misses the Smithsonian database's confirmed eruption threshold, Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania and Nyiragongo in the DR Congo are among the most active volcanoes on the continent, though at much lower elevations.

Summit elevation — the height above mean sea level — is the standard metric used in this ranking. However, it can be misleading when comparing volcanoes across different tectonic settings.

Consider Mauna Loa in Hawaii: its summit stands at 4,170 m (13,681 ft) above sea level, placing it well outside the top 50 on this list. But measured from its base on the ocean floor, Mauna Loa rises approximately 9,170 m (30,085 ft) — making it the tallest mountain on Earth by structural height. The volcano's enormous mass has actually depressed the ocean floor beneath it by an additional 8 km.

By contrast, the tallest volcano by elevation, Ojos del Salado (6,879 m), rises only about 2,000 m above the surrounding Altiplano terrain. Its extreme elevation is largely a function of its position atop an already elevated plateau.

This distinction matters for understanding volcanic hazards. A volcano's hazard zone is determined by its height above its surroundings (prominence), not its elevation above sea level. A 3,000 m prominence volcano near a populated coast poses far greater risk than a 6,000 m elevation volcano rising 1,500 m above a remote desert plateau.