US volcano quiz: How many can you name in 10 minutes?

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How many of the 160 named volcanoes in the U.S. and territories do you know? If you live in Alaska you have a big advantage.

landscape image showing mount st. helens at sunset with pink clouds and the volcano covered in snow
This is one of the U.S.'s 160 named, potentially threatening volcanoes — but what's it called? (Image credit: DaveArnoldPhoto.com/Getty Images)

The United States has the third-highest number of active volcanoes in the world, after Indonesia and Japan. It's home to the largest active volcano on Earth, as well as a supervolcano that could blanket the Midwest in ash.

The high number of volcanoes is down to the U.S.'s geology, with many sitting along the Pacific Rim in the "Ring of Fire" — a 25,000 mile (40,000 kilometers) chain of volcanic and seismically active sites where the Pacific plate and other tectonic plates meet. The vast majority are located in the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Peninsula, the Hawaiian Islands and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest.

Data was taken from the 2018 Update to the U.S. Geological Survey National Volcanic Threat Assessment.

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Hannah Osborne
Hannah Osborne
Editor

Hannah Osborne is the planet Earth and animals editor at Live Science. Prior to Live Science, she worked for several years at Newsweek as the science editor. Before this she was science editor at International Business Times U.K. Hannah holds a master's in journalism from Goldsmith's, University of London.