Last Updated on March 12, 2024 by Webmaster

There are 16 volcanoes in the world that are considered to be in a permanent state of eruption.

Latitudes and longitudes are all given as decimal values with South and West being negative numbers. These can be pasted directly into Google Earth.

  • Ambrym
    • Country: Vanuatu
    • Volcano Type: Pyroclastic shield
    • Summit Elevation: 1334 m (4,377 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -16.25, 168.12
    • Ambrym, a large basaltic volcano with a 12-km-wide caldera, is one of the most active volcanoes of the New Hebrides arc.

  • Arenal
    • Country: Costa Rica
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 1670 m (5,479 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 10.463, -84.703
    • Conical Volcán Arenal is the youngest stratovolcano in Costa Rica and one of its most active. The 1670-m-high andesitic volcano towers above the eastern shores of Lake Arenal, which has been enlarged by a hydroelectric project.

  • Bezymianny
    • Country: Russia
    • Sub-Region: Kamchatka Peninsula
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 2882 m (9,455 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 55.978, 160.587
    • Prior to its noted 1955-56 eruption, Bezymianny volcano had been considered extinct.

  • Erebus
    • Region: Antarctica
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 3,794 m (12,447 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -77.53, 167.17
    • Mount Erebus, the world’s southernmost historically active volcano, overlooks the McMurdo research station on Ross Island.

  • Erta Ale
    • Country: Ethiopia, Northeastern Africa
    • Volcano Type: Shield volcano
    • Summit Elevation: 613 m (2,011 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 13.60, 40.67
    • Erta Ale is an isolated basaltic shield volcano that is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. The broad, 50-km-wide volcano rises more than 600 m from below sea level in the barren Danakil depression.

  • Karymsky
    • Country: Russia
    • Sub-Region: Kamchatka Peninsula
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 1,526 m (5,039 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 54.05, 159.45
    • Karymsky, the most active volcano of Kamchatka’s eastern volcanic zone, is a symmetrical stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide caldera that formed during the early Holocene.

  • Kilauea
    • Country: Hawaii
    • Volcano Type: Shield volcano
    • Summit Elevation: 1,222 m (4,009 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 19.421, -155.287
    • Kilauea volcano, which overlaps the east flank of the massive Mauna Loa shield volcano, has been Hawaii’s most active volcano during historical time.

  • Ol Doinyo Lengai
    • Country: Tanzania, East Africa
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 2,962 m (9,718 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -2.764, 35.914
    • The symmetrical Ol Doinyo Lengai stratovolcano is the only volcano known to have erupted carbonatite tephras and lavas in historical time.

  • Pacaya
    • Country: Guatemala
    • Volcano Type: Complex volcano
    • Summit Elevation: 2,552 m (8,373 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 14.381, -90.601
    • Eruptions from Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s most active volcanoes, are frequently visible from Guatemala City, the nation’s capital. Pacaya is a complex basaltic volcano constructed just outside the southern topographic rim of the 14 x 16 km Pleistocene Amatitlán caldera.

  • Sakura-jima
    • Country: Japan
    • Sub-Region: Kyushu
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 1,117 m (3,665 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 31.585, 130.657
    • Sakura-jima, one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, is a post-caldera cone of the Aira caldera at the northern half of Kagoshima Bay.

  • Sangay
    • Country: Ecuador
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 5,230 m (17,159 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -2.002, -78.341
    • The isolated Sangay volcano, located east of the Andean crest, is the southernmost of Ecuador’s volcanoes, and its most active. The dominantly andesitic volcano has been in frequent eruption for the past several centuries.

  • Santa Maria
    • Country: Guatemala
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 3,772 m (12,375 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 14.756, -91.552
    • Symmetrical, forest-covered Santa María volcano is one of the most prominent of a chain of large stratovolcanoes that rises dramatically above the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala.

  • Semeru
    • Country: Indonesia
    • Sub-Region: Java
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 3,676 m (12,060 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -8.108, 112.92
    • Semeru, the highest volcano on Java, and one of its most active, lies at the southern end of a volcanic massif extending north to the Tengger caldera.

  • Stromboli
    • Country: Italy
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 924 m (3,031 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: 38.789, 15.213
    • Spectacular incandescent nighttime explosions at Stromboli volcano have long attracted visitors to the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.” Stromboli, the NE-most of the Aeolian Islands, has lent its name to the frequent mild explosive activity that has characterized its eruptions throughout much of historical time.

  • Villarrica
    • Country: Chile
    • Sub-Region: Central Chile
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 2,947 m (9,340 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -39.42, -71.93
    • Glacier-clad Villarrica, one of Chile’s most active volcanoes, rises above the lake and town of the same name. It is the westernmost of three large stratovolcanoes that trend perpendicular to the Andean chain.

  • Yasur
    • Country: Vanuatu
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 361 m (1,184 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -19.53, 169.442
    • Yasur, the best-known and most frequently visited of the Vanuatu volcanoes, has been in more-or-less continuous strombolian and vulcanian activity since Captain Cook observed ash eruptions in 1774.

Possible additions

  • Nyiragongo
    • Country: DR Congo
    • Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
    • Summit Elevation: 3,470 m (11,384 feet)
    • Lat/Lon: -1.52, 29.25
    • One of Africa’s most notable volcanoes, Nyiragongo contained a lava lake in its deep summit crater that was active for half a century before draining catastrophically through its outer flanks in 1977.