The ten highest volcanic mountains on Earth, ranked by summit elevation above sea level — every one of them in the high Andes of South America.
Quick answer: 1. Ojos del Salado, 2. Monte Pissis, 3. Nevado Tres Cruces (Tres Cruces Sur), 4. Llullaillaco, 5. Tipas (Cazadero), 6. Incahuasi, 7. Tupungato, 8. Nevado Sajama, 9. Coropuna, 10. Cerro El Condor.
The tallest volcanoes on Earth are not the smoking cones most people picture — they are ice-streaked Andean giants soaring above 6,000 metres, most of them long dormant or extinct. This list ranks the ten highest by summit elevation above sea level, the standard way of measuring a mountain's height. What stands out is the geography: all ten sit in a narrow belt of the Central Andes straddling Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. It is a list for map lovers, mountaineers, and anyone who wants to know why the world's highest volcano is a peak most people have never heard of.
At 6,893 m, Ojos del Salado is the highest volcano on Earth and the second-highest peak in the Andes after Aconcagua. It last erupted around 750 CE, making it the world's highest active or dormant volcano.
This extinct stratovolcano on the La Rioja-Catamarca border in Argentina reaches about 6,793 m, a height refined by a 2007 Chilean-Argentine-European survey. Some sources give 6,792 m.
The 6,748 m southern summit is the high point of a massif of three overlapping volcanoes on the Chile-Argentina border. Its most recent eruption was roughly 28,000 years ago.
At 6,739 m, Llullaillaco is the second-highest active or dormant volcano on Earth and the site of famous Inca high-altitude archaeological finds. Its last, unconfirmed, eruption was reported in May 1877.
A complex of stratovolcanoes, lava domes, and flows in Catamarca, Argentina, Tipas reaches about 6,660 m by GPS and DEM survey, above its official 6,658 m figure. Its activity may extend into the Holocene.
This 6,621 m caldera holds two stratovolcanoes on the Argentina-Chile border, with activity that may have reached into the Holocene. An alternative measurement of 6,638 m has also been reported.
A 6,570 m dormant volcano on the Argentina-Chile border near Santiago, last erupting around 0.8 million years ago. Its elevation comes from Chilean topographic mapping; some sources incorrectly cite 6,800 m.
At 6,542 m, Sajama is the highest mountain in Bolivia and the tallest volcano outside the Argentina-Chile frontier. It is a stratovolcano built atop several lava domes, last active in the Pleistocene or Holocene.
The highest volcano and highest peak in Peru at 6,425 m, Coropuna is an ice-capped complex of several summits in the Andean Central Volcanic Zone.
At 6,414 m, Cerro El Condor is one of the few large stratovolcanoes lying wholly in Argentina and was likely the last major 6,000 m Andean peak to be climbed. Holocene eruptions in its summit region are considered possible, so it is regarded as dormant rather than extinct.
| # | Name | country | volcanoType | status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ojos del Salado | Argentina / Chile | Complex volcano | Dormant |
| 2 | Monte Pissis | Argentina | Stratovolcano | Extinct |
| 3 | Nevado Tres Cruces (Tres Cruces Sur) | Argentina / Chile | Volcanic massif | Dormant |
| 4 | Llullaillaco | Argentina / Chile | Stratovolcano | Dormant |
| 5 | Tipas (Cazadero) | Argentina | Complex volcano | Possibly Holocene |
| 6 | Incahuasi | Argentina / Chile | Stratovolcano | Dormant |
| 7 | Tupungato | Argentina / Chile | Lava dome | Dormant |
| 8 | Nevado Sajama | Bolivia | Stratovolcano | Extinct |
| 9 | Coropuna | Peru | Complex volcano | Dormant |
| 10 | Cerro El Condor | Argentina | Stratovolcano | Dormant |
Volcanoes are ranked by summit elevation above sea level — the standard measure of a volcano's height as a mountain — with the highest elevation ranked number 1. Each entry is a distinct volcanic mountain; subsidiary summits of the same massif, and low-prominence secondary peaks (such as Volcan Ata / Walter Penck, whose ~170 m prominence marks it as a satellite of a higher neighbour), are not counted separately. Elevations are drawn primarily from Wikipedia's cross-referenced "List of volcanoes by elevation" and each volcano's individual page, with a corroborating figure from WorldAtlas where noted. Where multiple surveyed figures exist for a peak (repeat measurement being common at these altitudes), the most commonly reported value is used and alternatives are noted. Inclusion requires that the landform be a recognized volcano (of any activity status — active, dormant, or extinct); non-volcanic Andean peaks such as Aconcagua are excluded.
Ojos del Salado, on the Argentina-Chile border, is the tallest volcano in the world at 6,893 m above sea level. It is also the second-highest mountain in the Andes after Aconcagua (which is not a volcano) and the world's highest active or dormant volcano.
Every volcano in the top ten sits in the Central Andes, where the Nazca plate subducts beneath the South American plate. This produces a belt of extremely high volcanic peaks across Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru — the highest concentration of tall volcanoes on Earth.
Measured from its base on the Pacific seafloor, Hawaii's Mauna Kea is taller — over 10,000 m from base to summit. But this list ranks by summit elevation above sea level, the standard measure of a mountain's height, and by that measure Mauna Kea's summit is about 4,207 m, far below the Andean giants.
Several are classified as dormant rather than extinct, meaning they could erupt again. Ojos del Salado last erupted around 750 CE and Llullaillaco had an unconfirmed eruption reported in 1877, but none of the ten has had a confirmed major eruption in recent history.