The Ring of Fire is a tectonic belt, about 40,000 km (25,000 mi) long and up to about 500 km (310 mi) wide, which circumscribes the Pacific Ocean. It contains between 750 and 915 volcanoes, around two-thirds of the world total, and 90% of the world's earthquakes, including 81% of its largest, take place within the belt.
A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava erupted from a stratovolcano. Repeated eruptions result in the steady accumulation of broad sheets of lava, building up the shield volcano's distinctive form.
Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. Located along the southeastern shore of Hawai'i Island, the volcano is between 210,000 and 280,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. Historically, it is the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaii. Kīlauea is also one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, with the most recent eruption occurring in September 2023 when multiple vents erupted lava for a week within the volcano's summit caldera inside Halemaʻumaʻu crater.
Arenal Volcano is an active andesitic stratovolcano in north-western Costa Rica around 90 km (56 mi) northwest of San José, in the province of Alajuela, canton of San Carlos, and district of La Fortuna. The Arenal volcano measures at least 1,633 metres (5,358 ft) high. It is conically shaped with a crater 140 metres (460 ft) in diameter. Geologically, Arenal is considered a young volcano and it is estimated to be less than 7,500 years old. It is also known as "Pan de Azúcar", "Canaste", "Volcan Costa Rica", "Volcan Río Frío" or "Guatusos Peak".
Mount Mazama is a complex volcano in the western U.S. state of Oregon, in a segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and Cascade Range. Most of the mountain collapsed following a major eruption approximately 7,700 years ago. The volcano is in Klamath County, in the southern Cascades, 60 miles (97 km) north of the Oregon–California border. Its collapse, due to the eruption of magma emptying the underlying magma chamber, formed a caldera that holds Crater Lake. The mountain is in Crater Lake National Park. Mount Mazama originally had an elevation of 12,000 feet (3,700 m), but following its climactic eruption this was reduced to 8,157 feet (2,486 m). Crater Lake is 1,943 feet (592 m) deep, the deepest freshwater body in the U.S. and the second deepest in North America after Great Slave Lake in Canada.
Mount Nyiragongo is an active stratovolcano with an elevation of 3,470 m (11,385 ft) in the Virunga Mountains associated with the Albertine Rift. It is located inside Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 12 km (7.5 mi) north of the town of Goma and Lake Kivu and just west of the border with Rwanda. The main crater is about two kilometres (1 mi) wide and usually contains a lava lake. The crater presently has two distinct cooled lava benches within the crater walls – one at about 3,175 m (10,417 ft) and a lower one at about 2,975 m (9,760 ft).
Piton de la Fournaise is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Réunion island in the Indian Ocean. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world, along with Kīlauea in the Hawaiian Islands, Stromboli and Etna in Italy and Mount Erebus in Antarctica. A previous eruption began in August 2006 and ended in January 2007. The volcano erupted again in February 2007, on 21 September 2008, on 9 December 2010, which lasted for two days, and on 1 August 2015. The most recent eruption began on 2 July 2023. The volcano is located within Réunion National Park, a World Heritage Site.
Momotombo is a stratovolcano in Nicaragua, located near the city of León. It stands on the shores of Lake Managua. An eruption of the volcano in 1610 forced inhabitants of the then-Spanish city of León to relocate about 48 kilometres (30 mi) west. The ruins of this city are preserved at León Viejo. It also erupted in 1886, 1905, and most recently on 30 November 2015 and 28 February 2016.
Acatenango is a stratovolcano in Guatemala, close to the city of Antigua. The volcano has two peaks, Pico Mayor and Yepocapa which is also known as Tres Hermanas. Acatenango is joined with Volcán de Fuego and collectively the volcano complex is known as La Horqueta.
Cerro Azul, sometimes referred to as Quizapu, is an active stratovolcano in the Maule Region of central Chile, immediately south of Descabezado Grande. Part of the South Volcanic Zone of the Andes, its summit is 3,788 meters (12,428 ft) above sea level, and is capped by a summit crater that is 500 meters (1,600 ft) wide and opens to the north. Beneath the summit, the volcano features numerous scoria cones and flank vents.
Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes, rising above the lake and town of the same name, 750 km (470 mi) south of Santiago. It is also known as Rucapillán, a Mapuche word meaning "great spirit's house" or " the demon's house". It is the westernmost of three large stratovolcanoes that trend northwest to southeast obliquely perpendicular to the Andean chain along the Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone, and along with Quetrupillán and the Chilean portion of Lanín, are protected within Villarrica National Park. Guided ascents are popular during summer months.
Karymsky is an active stratovolcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. It and Shiveluch are Kamchatka's largest, most active and most continuously erupting volcanoes, as well as one of the most active on the planet.
Mount Mahawu is a stratovolcano located immediately east from Lokon-Empung volcano in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The volcano is capped with 180 m wide and 140 m deep crater with two pyroclastic cones in the northern flanks. A small explosive eruption was recorded in 1789. In 1994, fumaroles, mudpots and small geysers activities were observed along the greenish shore of a crater lake.
Mount Tendürek is a shield volcano on the border of Ağrı and Van provinces in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. The volcano, which is mostly known for being near the supposed wreck site of Noah's Ark, is very large; its lava flows cover roughly 650 km2 (251 sq mi) across a swath of flat land. The mountain's two main features are the main summit crater Greater Tendürek, and a smaller crater known as Lesser Tendürek which lies to the east of the main crater. The slopes are very gentle and resemble a shield, after which the type is named. Mount Tendürek is known to have erupted viscous lava like that of volcanoes on the island of Hawaii.
A cinder cone is a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic clinkers, volcanic ash, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions or lava fountains from a single, typically cylindrical, vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as either cinders, clinkers, or scoria around the vent to form a cone that often is symmetrical; with slopes between 30 and 40°; and a nearly circular ground plan. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit.
The volcanic history of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province presents a record of volcanic activity in northwestern British Columbia, central Yukon and the U.S. state of easternmost Alaska. The volcanic activity lies in the northern part of the Western Cordillera of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Extensional cracking of the North American Plate in this part of North America has existed for millions of years. Continuation of this continental rifting has fed scores of volcanoes throughout the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province over at least the past 20 million years and occasionally continued into geologically recent times.
The Canadian Cascade Arc, also called the Canadian Cascades, is the Canadian segment of the North American Cascade Volcanic Arc. Located entirely within the Canadian province of British Columbia, it extends from the Cascade Mountains in the south to the Coast Mountains in the north. Specifically, the southern end of the Canadian Cascades begin at the Canada–United States border. However, the specific boundaries of the northern end are not precisely known and the geology in this part of the volcanic arc is poorly understood. It is widely accepted by geologists that the Canadian Cascade Arc extends through the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains. However, others have expressed concern that the volcanic arc possibly extends further north into the Kitimat Ranges, another subdivision of the Coast Mountains, and even as far north as Haida Gwaii.
Anyuyskiy is an extinct volcano in the Anyuy Mountains, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Far Eastern Russia. It is formed by two systems: one is formed by long lava flows which disrupted the valley of the Monni River. Later, a volcanic cone formed, experiencing explosive activity and eventually extruding a long lava flow.
The isolated San Martin Tuxtla volcano is a shield volcano which rises above the Gulf of Mexico. It has had eruptions in historical times. It occurs in the Tuxtla volcanic field in Veracruz, Mexico. Lavas from San Martin vary between basanite and alkali basalt. Locally the volcano is also known as Tiltépetl.
