The Most Explosive Volcanoes on Record

Data: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (volcano.si.edu), 11,079 eruptions across 1,740 volcanoes. Counts are descriptive of the recorded eruption history and do not forecast future activity.

How this ranking works

Every volcano here is scored by how many of its eruptions reached VEI 4 or greater — the “large” class on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, a logarithmic scale where each step is a roughly tenfold jump in erupted volume. We count only VEI 4+ eruptions because smaller VEI 0–3 events happen almost constantly at volcanoes like Kilauea and Stromboli and would swamp the comparison. Sort the table by VEI 5+ count or peak VEI to surface the volcanoes capable of the very largest eruptions.

Sheveluch tops the list with 43large eruptions on record — the highest of any volcano in the database. The volcanoes just behind it (Cotopaxi, Katla, Pelee) sit at roughly half that count, which shows how unusual Sheveluch's record of repeated large explosions really is.

Most explosive vs. most active

“Most active” and “most explosive” are not the same thing. The world's most active volcanoes — the ones erupting most often or right now — usually do so at low VEI, oozing lava or puffing ash for years on end. This ranking instead measures the size of the largest explosions, so a volcano that erupts rarely but violently can outrank one that erupts constantly but gently. To see what is erupting today, visit our active volcanoes tracker; to see the same eruptions plotted through time, use the eruption timeline.

The 10 most explosive volcanoes on record

For the single biggest blasts rather than the most frequent, see our ranking of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, the human toll in our deadliest eruptions list, and which volcanoes threaten the most people in the most dangerous volcanoes.