Which Volcano is the World’s Largest?

The map displayed above illustrates the locations of the world’s major volcanoes.

The Tamu Massif, which is located on the Shatsky Rise in the northwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, has the greatest mass and footprint. Mauna Kea, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, has the largest height from base to peak. Ojos del Salado is the greatest summit elevation in the Andes mountain range between Argentina and Chile.

Tamu Massif: The World’s Largest Volcano

Greatest of the world’s most notable characteristics have been appreciated and acknowledged for millennia. Tamu Masif is an outlier. It is currently recognized as one volcano rather than a volcano complicated with several vents. Tamu Massif is the largest volcano into the world, covering approximately twelve thousand kilometers (310,800 sq kms), approximately equivalent to the territory of New Mexico. Tamu Massif is also the largest recognized single volcano in the world. How could this enormous volcano have gone unnoticed through 2013?

Tamu Massif – the world’s strongest volcano: Tamu Massif, Earth’s largest single volcano, is depicted in 3-D on the seafloor. Image courtesy of the National Science Foundation’s Will Sager..

The Late Recognition of Tamu Massif as the Largest Volcano on Earth

Tamu Massif circumscribed being recognized among the world’s largest gigantic volcano and the volcano with the biggest footprint because of the following reasons:

1) Remote Location: Tamu Massif lies in a remote area of the northwestern Pacific Sea around 1000 miles (1609 kilometers) east of Japan. Its top is over 6500 feet (2000 meters) below sea level. This remote location and immense depth made collecting data about the volcano extremely challenging. For decades, researchers knew more about the enormous volcanoes on Mars than they found out about Tamu Massif.

2) Not an Obvious Mountain: Many volcanoes are noticeable “mountains,” but the slopes of Tamu Massif are very subtle. Just below the summit, the slope of the volcano is less than one level. Near the base of the volcano, the pitch is less than one-half degree. It is not a volcano that suddenly and steeply climbs up skyward from the seafloor.

3) Tamu Massif Duped Scientists: They identified Tamu Massif for being a volcanic mountain, but they mistook it for a volcanic composite made up of many volcanoes that had merged.. It was not until seismic data showed that several lava flows arose from a single vent. Geochemical analysis showed that the lava flows had comparable make-ups and were about the same age.

Unless an even bigger volcano remains discovered on the deep ocean floor, Tamu Massif is the largest volcano on Earth.

Mauna Kea: The Tallest Volcano

Mauna Kea is a volcano on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The peak of Mauna Kea stands 13,796 ft (4205 m) above the ocean’s surface; nevertheless, the volcano’s base is roughly 19,685 feet (6000 m) beneath sea level.

If we determine from the volcano’s base on If we measure from the volcano’s base on the ocean floor to the top of the volcano, Mauna Kea is over 33,000 feet tall, making Mauna Kea taller than any other volcano on Earth. It is also the globe’s tallest mountain.

Ojos del Salado: Greatest Summit Elevation

A volcano may reach an even greater extreme. The volcano with the highest summit altitude is this one. That distinction belongs to Ojos del Salado, a stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains that spans the border between Chile and Argentina (the hill has two summits, the higher of which is in Chile). It is located at an altitude of 22,615 feet (6893 m). It is also the second-highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, the second-highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, and Chile’s tallest mountain.

Photograph of Ojos del Salado, the volcano with the highest summit elevation (22,615 feet / 6893 meters), located in the Andes Mountains and straddling the border between Chile and Argentina. Photo by sergejf, used here under a Creative Commons license.

Ojos del Salado: Greatest Summit Elevation

A volcano can reach even greater heights. The greatest top elevation of any volcano. Ojos del Salado, a stratovolcano located in the Andes Hills that straddles the boundary between Chile and Argentina (the mountain has two summits and the higher of which is in Chile), takes its place in history.

The height of Ojos del Salado is 22,615 feet (6893 meters). It is also the highest mountain in Chile, the second tallest in the Southern Hemisphere, and the second highest in the Western Hemisphere.

Volcanic Activity at Ojos del Salado

The volcano Ojos del Salado is considered hazardous. The caldera, which consists of many craters, cones, and lava domes, has been the origin of Holocene lava flows. An explosive eruption produced pyroclastic flows around 1000 to 1500 years ago. The most recent known activity was a modest gas and ash discharge observed by locals in 1993. However, it has yet to be validated by a volcanologist.

Read the original article on Geology.com.