List of Highest Volcanoes in the World

All ten of the world's highest volcanoes stand in a single mountain range on a single continent: the Andes of South America. Nine of the ten straddle the border between Chile and Argentina, in a high-altitude region known as the Puna de Atacama — one of the driest and most geologically active corners of the planet. Ojos del Salado is the world's highest volcano, rising 6,893 metres. It is also the second-highest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres, second only to Aconcagua. Unlike Aconcagua, Ojos del Salado is volcanically active, with its most recent confirmed eruption occurring around 750 CE and minor gas emissions continuing today. Near its summit, at 6,390 metres, sits the highest lake on Earth — a small crater pool only about 100 metres across. The reason the Andes dominate this list is straightforward plate tectonics. The Nazca Plate is grinding beneath the South American Plate at about 7 centimetres per year, melting rock deep in the mantle and driving it upward. The combination of thick continental crust and relentless subduction builds volcanoes higher than anywhere else on Earth. High altitude changes everything about these volcanoes. They are often covered in ice even in summer, their eruptive cycles are measured in millennia rather than years, and climbing one is a serious mountaineering challenge. Ojos del Salado itself can be driven up to very high altitudes — the world altitude record for an automobile, 6,893 metres, was set on its slopes in 2020.