List of largest volcanic eruptions

However erosion and plate tectonics have taken their toll, and many eruptions have not left enough evidence for geologists to establish their size.

[46] The lava fields of these eruptions measure 565 km2 (Laki), 700 km2 (Eldgjá) and 950 km2 (Þjórsárhraun).Highly active periods of volcanism in what are called large igneous provinces have produced huge oceanic plateaus and flood basalts in the past.

These can comprise hundreds of large eruptions, producing millions of cubic kilometers of lava in total.

Most large igneous provinces have either not been studied thoroughly enough to establish the size of their component eruptions, or are not preserved well enough to make this possible.

Many of the eruptions listed above thus come from just two large igneous provinces: the Paraná and Etendeka traps and the Columbia River Basalt Group.

A tower of grey ash erupts above a mountain
The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo , the largest eruption since 1912, is dwarfed by the eruptions in this list.
A red-hot lava flow streams out of a fuming vent, meandering past the viewer under a low cloudy sky.
Effusive eruption of lava from Krafla , Iceland
The Siberian Traps underlie much of Russia, from the Lena River west to the Ural Mountains (around 3,000 km), and stretching south from the Arctic coast almost to Lake Baikal (around 2,000 km).
Extent of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (map in German)