Top 10 Biggest Volcano on Earth

Mauna Loa. Image credit: USGS

The largest volcano on Earth is Mauna Loa, which is one of the 5 volcanoes that make up the Big Island of Hawaii. When we talk about biggest volcano here, we’re talking about the volcano that has the biggest volume, and that’s Mauna Loa. It’s made up of an estimated 75,000 cubic kilometers of material.
Mauna Loa is an active shield volcano, and scientists think that it has been erupting for about 700,000 years; it emerged through the surface of the ocean about 400,000 years ago. The active magma for Mauna Loa comes from the Hawaiian hotspot. But the plate carrying the massive volcano is slowly carrying it away from the hotspot, and it will go extinct in the next 500,000 to 1 million years. It last erupted in 1984, and destroyed homes and villages in 1926 and 1950.
The volcano measures 4,169 meters above sea level, but that’s not its true height. Measured from the sea floor, Mauna Loa is really taller than 9,000 meters – that’s taller than Mount Everest. But Mauna Loa isn’t the tallest volcano, that’s actually its neighbor, Mauna Kea, which is about 40 meters taller.
The biggest volcano in the Solar System isn’t on Earth, but on Mars. Olympus Mons, on Mars, measures 27 km high, and has about 100 times the volume of Mauna Loa.

Top Ten Volcanoes

 

Every volcanologist and geologist in the world has their own top 10 list of
volcanoes in the world - here is the list from the Editor of MountStHelens.com - the
foremost travel authority on North America's most famous volcano:
The World's Top 10 Volcanoes:
1.   Mount St. Helens - Washington State2.   Mount Vesuvius - Italy3.   Mt. Fuji - Japan.  Currently Dormant4.   Mt. Kilauea & Mauna Loa - Hawaii5.   Mount Kilimanjaro - Tanzania.  Currently dormant.6.   Popocatepetl - Mexico7.   Mount Etna - Greece8.   Krakatoa - Indonesia9.   Mount Pelee - Martinique10. Alaska Volcanoes -  Shishaldin Volcano, Mount Redoubt, Mount Augustine,
Mount Katmai

The Continental U.S. Top 10 Volcanoes:
1.  Mount St. Helens, Washington State2.  Mount Mazama - Crater Lake, Oregon3.  Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming4.  Mount Rainier - Washington State5.  Mount Lassen, California6.  Mount Shasta, California7.  Pikes Peak, Colorado8.  Craters of the Moon - Idaho9.  Devils Tower - Wyoming (volcano core)10. Mount Hood - Oregon
11. Haystack Rock - Cannon Beach ( technically a lava flow formation )

Top 10 Geographic Places see in the United States
1. Yellowstone National Park
2. Grand Canyon
3. Mount St. Helens
4. Mount Rushmore
5. Devils Tower
6. Bryce Canyon
7. Redwoods National Forest
8. Yosemite
9. Crazy Horse
10.Crater Lake

Honorable Mention: Niagara Falls, Mount Rainier, Death Valley, Zion Park, The
Everglades, Badlands.

"Best of the West"
•  Best Restaurant: Cadillac Restaurant, Jackson, Wyoming•  Best Souvenir Store: Wall Drug, South Dakota•  Best National Park: Yellowstone•  Best Adventure Tour: Mount St. Helens Helicopter Tour•  Best General Campground: KOA, West Yellowstone