Volcanoes can be defined as a vent in the crust of a planetary-mass object, like Earth, that allows material warmer than its surroundings to escape, and while escaping, it will cause an eruption. This erution can be explosive (sending material high in the sky) or calm, where it will gently flow along with the material. As of now, there are more than 1500 active volcanoes on Earth, and the greatest number of the Earth’s volcanoes occur on the ocean floor. Here is the list of famous volcanoes in the world,
Famous Volcanoes
1. Mount Saint Helens, Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
- Mount Saint Helens is one of the famous volcanoes located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
- It is called by different names such as Lawala Clough, Low-We-Lat-Klah, Low-We-Not-Thlat, Loowit, Loo-wit, Loo-wit Lat-kla, and Louwala-Clough, and all these refer to the smoke at the volcano.
- The volcano is at a height of approximately 8,300 feet. The original height before the eruption was 9,677 feet.
- Mount Saint Helens is most famous for its eruption that occurred on May 18, 1980, since it is one of the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic events in the history of the U.S.
- It is still in an active state, and as per geologists, future eruptions will be even more destructive.
Image Source: Wikimedia
2. Krakatoa, Indonesia
- Krakatoa is one of the volcanoes that is situated in the Sundara Strait, an extension region of Indonesia.
- It is one of the most famous volcanoes because its eruption generated the loudest sound ever recorded and also inspired many paintings.
- Krakatoa is around the Pacific basin, where two huge tectonic plates meet. The two plates, the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian, constantly collide, resulting that will result into the volcanic activity.
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3. Mount Vesuvius, Italy
- Mount Vesuvius is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world. It is made up of two volcanoes, where the main peak is named Vesuvius, and another mountain that is attached to it, known as a caldera or crater, that has been created by the previous eruption.
- The volcano had a devastating eruption in 79 AD, and the inhabitants of Pompeii have no idea that they are living beside a volcano that hasn’t been erupted in 1,800 years.
Before 79 AD, there was no name for the volcano; however, after a devastating eruption, it was named after the Roman God of the Flame and Metal Forgery as Vulcan.
Image Source: Wikimedia
4. Mount Etna, Italy
- Mount Etna is a stratovolcano located in the southern Italian region of Sicily.
- Intially, the volcano was quiet and did not pose a threat to villages; however, in 1669, there was an eruption that lasted for 112 days and emitted 600 million m3 of lava, developing a record 17-kilometre-long stream of lava that destroyed the city of Catania.
- It is believed that Mount Etna was born 600,000 years ago, and at that time, the area was a large gulf under the sea’s surface, and volcanic activity gave birth to the first eruptions.
Image Source: Dennis
5. Mauna Loa, Hawaii
- Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on planet Earth. It erupted on November 22, 2022, marking its first eruption in nearly 40 years.
- The famous volcano is situated on the south-central part of the state of Hawaii on Big Island, Mauna Loa, literally meaning ‘Long Mountain’ in Hawaiian.
- It is believed that Mauna Loa is an ancient volcano that emerged and has been erupting for at least 700,000 years.
- Since 1843, the volcano has erupted 34 times, and most of the eruptions happened prior to 1950, averaging 3.5 years between eruptions.
Image Source: Nathan
6. Mount Fuji, Tokyo
- Mount Fuji is located on Honshu Island and is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft).
- Mount Fuji is one of the famous volcanoes that is made up of three separate volcanoes, one on top of the other. The bottom layer is Komitake volcano, then Kofuji volcano, then Fuji (the youngest of the three mountains).
- Mount Fuji is also one of the most beautiful mountains in Japan and Japan’s most popular attraction.
- One of the beautiful mountains in the world known as Fuji-san in Japanese, and the origin of Fuji’s name is disputed. The last eruption of this volcano started in December of 1707 and continued until the first day of the new year in 1708.
7. Mount Pinatubo, Philippines
- Mount Pinatubo is an active volcano located at the tripoint boundary of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga, all in Central Luzon on the northern island of Luzon.
- The volcano became famous after its deadly eruption in 1991, which took the lives of many people and caused economic damage to the country.
- The volcano is located approximately 87 kilometres northwest of the capital of the Philippines, Manila.
- It is believed that the volcanic activity of Mount Pinatubo began some 1,1 million years ago.
- The volcano is made up of dacite and andesite.
Image Source: Wikimedia
8. Mount Pelee, Martinique
- Mount Pelee, also known as Mont Pelée, is an active volcano located at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department.
- There have been approximately four eruptions over the past 250 years: phreatic eruptions between 1792 and 1851 and magmatic eruptions that built lava domes during 1902–1905 and 1929–1932.
- It is believed that Mount Pelée is the result of a typical subduction zone. The last stratovolcano eruption was in 1902, taking the lives of almost 29,000 to 30,000 people in the space of a few minutes and being considered the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century.
Image Source: Wikimedia
9. Mount Tambora, Indonesia
- Mount Tambora, also known as Tomboro, is an active volcano located in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
- It is believed that the mountain first appeared around 57 000 years ago, and there is a chain of volcanoes that exist throughout the Indonesian islands.
- Mount Tambora is one of the most famous volcanoes because it had the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history in the year 1815. This eruption was so powerful that roughly millions of tonnes of earth and rock were thrown from the top of the volcano, which has reduced the highest point of the volcano to 2800 m from over 4000 m.
Image Source: Wikimedia
10. Mount Cotopaxi, South America
- Mount Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano located in Ecuador and has nested summit craters, the largest of which is about 550 x 800 m.
- The Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi is the third-highest active volcano in the world.
- It is in the Cotopaxi National Park, approximately 50 kilometres south of Quito. The volcano has a north and south summit, where the north summit, at 19347 ft (5897 m), is 77 m higher than the south summit.
- The normal route of the volcano has no great technical difficulties, and it does not require crampons, an ice axe, or rope.
Image Source: Dallas
These are the 10 most famous volcanoes in the world. Kindly share and post your comments.