7 of the Oldest Active Volcanoes (Plus Their Last Eruption Date)

Determining if a volcano is active usually comes down to the time since the last eruption. If a volcano has shown any activity in the past 10,000 years, it’s classified as active though there are always exceptions to the rule. What are seven of the oldest active volcanoes? Plus their last eruption date? We’ll discuss these volcanoes now.

7. Stromboli

As one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, Stromboli in Sicily, Italy, has been steadily erupting since 1932. Stromboli is the northeast Aeolian Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

While Stromboli has been continuously erupting for thousands of years, the last major eruption took place in 1921. There was a pyroclastic flow on August 28, 2019. It is one of four active volcanoes in Italy.

Standing at about 3,000 feet above sea level, two-thirds of the volcano is under the water. The island itself has a diameter of around 3 miles. The way that this volcano erupts is used as an example by which other eruptions are compared.

6. Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens in Washington State is the most active volcano in the Cascade Range. The Cascade Range is a mountain range in the western United States that contains various volcanoes. These volcanoes are a part of the Ring of Fire, which encircles the entire Pacific Ocean.

In 1980, 1,300 feet of the summit came down the mountain as an avalanche as a result of a massive eruption. Between 2004 and 2008, more volcanic activity occurred creating a lava dome in the crater made by the 1980 eruption.

The activity in the early 2000s was considered one elongated eruption. After five months without any activity, scientists declared the eruption over. There are identifiable layers of volcanic ash on Mount Rainier that were created by this mountain and others in the region.

5. Kilauea

Kilauea is a shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s around 280,000 years old and it rose above the waters of the Pacific Ocean approximately 100,000 years ago. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The most recent (as at July 15, 2023) eruption began June 7, 2023 and ended June 19, 2023, following a series of earthquakes in which multiple vents spewed lava within Halemaʻumaʻu, the pit crater in the volcano’s summit caldera, and built a fissure cinder cone about 40 meters (130 feet) high.

This Halema’uma’u pit crater was believed to be the dwelling and body of the goddess Pele. Pele is a fire goddess responsible for the creation of the islands in Hawaii.

The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is underwater mountains that culminate in the above-water Hawaiian Islands. Kilauea is the second youngest volcano created in this chain by the hotspot responsible for the Hawaiian islands. As the earth’s plates moved, different mountains were slowly created as the new ground moved over the hotspot.

4. Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier towers over 14,000 feet above sea level in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the tallest mountain in Washington State and it’s the highest peak in the Cascade Range. This volcano is considered overdue for an eruption and there is a significant human population living around it.

One of the major concerns for 80,000 of the surrounding residents is the fatal lahars that will be created by Rainier when an eruption occurs. These lahars are a mixture of rock, pyroclastic debris, and glacial water that follow water paths down the side of an erupting volcano.

The cause is melting glaciers and Mount Rainier has the most glacial ice out of any mountain on the planet. There are many communities built on the ancient paths of old lahars which may prove disastrous.

3. Mount Etna

There have been around 190 eruptions of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. Its first recorded activity happened in 1500 BCE. It is almost always active and it’s one of the most active volcanoes on the planet.

An extremely rare phenomenon happened on Etna in the 1970s and was captured on video on June 8, 2000. The volcano sent up smoke rings. The last recorded instance was on April 11, 2013.

2. Yellowstone Caldera

The Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park was created at least 631,000 years ago by a massive eruption resulting from a volcanic hotspot. Over the past 16.5 million years, up to 20 eruptions that formed calderas occurred as the continent shifted.

There is a trail providing evidence of this activity stretching from Yellowstone to western Idaho. Some of these eruptions are the most powerful volcanic events that have occurred throughout all of earth’s history.

Between 631,000 to 2.1 million years ago, three eruptions occurred that formed most of what makes up the caldera today. While it’s been about 70,000 years since the last major eruption, the Yellowstone Caldera is considered active by many scientists.

1. Popocatépetl

While Popocatépetl (El Popo) in its most current state formed about 50,000 years ago, the processes that created this active volcano began around 730,000 years ago. The volcano’s name means “smoking mountain” in Aztec. El Popo currently is the third iteration of a mountain in this spot because large enough eruptions destroyed the first two.

It’s known that El Popo erupted multiple times in American prehistory. Since colonialism began, the volcano has erupted over a dozen times. It’s been erupting almost continuously since 2005.

El Popo is part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and it’s the southernmost volcano in the chain. It’s Mexico’s second-highest mountain. It was covered in glaciers until 2001 but volcanic activity and an increased average temperature in the region melted them. It is still covered in ice.

Summary of 7 of the Oldest Active Volcanoes

Here’s a recap of the seven oldest volcanoes we took a look at that are still active.