The Tallest Volcanoes in the World

Ojos del Salado rises 22,615 feet (6,893 meters) on the Argentina-Chile border, which makes it the highest volcano on Earth and the highest active one. It is not an outlier. Every volcano on the planet that climbs past 20,000 feet stands in the Andes, strung along the Andean Volcanic Belt that follows the western edge of South America. Volcanic activity is one of the forces that builds mountains, and in this corner of the world it has produced the tallest volcanoes anywhere, though none rivals the world's highest mountains in the Himalaya. The twenty highest are split among Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. Most stand in the dry highlands around the Atacama Desert. What follows groups them by elevation, starting with the four giants above 22,000 feet.

Volcanoes Above 22,000 Feet

Four volcanoes clear 22,000 feet, and all of them sit on or near the Argentina-Chile border. Ojos del Salado leads at 22,615 feet (6,893 meters). It is active, though barely: its last major eruption came roughly 1,300 years ago, and it now sits quietly above the Atacama Desert.

Monte Pissis is next at 22,287 feet (6,793 meters), an extinct volcano and the second highest in the world. Nevado Tres Cruces, also extinct, ranks third at 22,139 feet (6,748 meters) along the Chile-Argentina line. Llullaillaco rounds out the group at 22,110 feet (6,739 meters) as the fourth-highest volcano on Earth. It is dormant rather than extinct, with activity recorded as recently as the 1870s, and it doubles as one of the highest archaeological sites anywhere, after three Inca mummies were found near its summit in 1999.

Volcanoes Between 21,000 And 22,000 Feet

Eight more volcanoes fall between 21,000 and 22,000 feet, again all in the central Andes. The highest is Cerro Tipas, also called Cerro Walther Penck, the fifth-tallest volcano overall at 21,850 feet (6,660 meters) in Argentina.

Nevado Sajama anchors the group from outside the Argentina-Chile core. At 21,463 feet (6,542 meters) it is both the highest mountain in Bolivia and the highest volcano beyond that border zone. Farther north, Coropuna reaches 21,079 feet (6,425 meters) as the highest volcano in Peru, its summit buried under one of the largest ice caps in the tropics. Nevado Tres Cruces Central, Incahuasi, Tupungato, Ata, and Cerro El Condor fill out the band and appear in the ranking below.

Volcanoes Between 20,000 And 21,000 Feet

The final eight volcanoes in the top twenty stand between 20,000 and 21,000 feet. Parinacota and Ampato open the band, but the best known is Chimborazo.

Chimborazo is a stratovolcano in Ecuador and the highest mountain in the country at 20,548 feet (6,263 meters). Its real distinction is geometric. Because the planet bulges at the equator, Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the surface from the center of the Earth, even though Everest reaches far higher above sea level. Pular, Cerro Solo, Aucanquilcha, San Pedro, and the Sierra Nevada close out the list.

The Andean Volcanic Belt

Every volcano above 20,000 feet belongs to the Andean Volcanic Belt, the band of volcanism that follows South America's Pacific edge. It exists because the Nazca Plate is grinding beneath the South American Plate, melting rock that rises to build the peaks above. The belt begins in Colombia and reaches the southern tip of Argentina, with the tallest volcanoes clustered in its dry central section.

That central stretch, in and around the Atacama, is the reason a single mountain range holds every one of the planet's highest volcanoes.

The Twenty Tallest Volcanoes, Ranked

Ranked by elevation, the twenty tallest volcanoes in the world look like this. Every one of them rises in the Andes.